A Tale of Two Beasts: Harmony & Chaos
by ShiningYrael
Summary: Kyuubi was gone. Imprisoned. What more could he accomplish with his mentor in such a state? Confused, alone, and eager for destruction, a young Youko Kurama enters Konohagakure with the intent to free his Lord. AU, SLIGHT YYHxOver
1. Prologue

A/N - Naturally, I've got to post one of these stupid disclaimers... so... I, ShiningYrael, do NOT own Naruto, Yu Yu Hakusho, or any other respective properties of these two anime/manga series. I rightfully discredit my ownership of these and I am writing this for my own amusement, and not for profit.

The only things I own are the story line which takes place in this fic, and all original characters.

This is the only disclaimer I will post, but it applies for each and every chapter, and the story in total.

Alright then, now that that's outta the way, just lemme give off a few basics for how I see this working out. This occurs before Yu Yu Hakusho... but after it, too. Like... Makai runs on a completely different time than Ningenkai does. Essentially, time is just an illusion, anyway. Just a system created by man to measure the passing of events. Mathematically, it's been proven a person could travel back in time. Like, a person could launch off in a rocket and slingshot around the sun and arrive back on earth in time to watch himself blast off. A strong theory is that there are alternate universes/realities which enable this, such as the Makai, which is why a person could be in two places at once.

So essentially, I think the Naruto universe takes place LONG after the twentieth, or twenty first century, and it's kind of post apocalyptic. So since Time doesn't really exist, Youko has already met with Kuronue, but hasn't developed into the major villain/thief yet, but sensing Kyuubi leaving he ran off to the Ningenkai. So.. he'll go through this story before meeting with anybody from YYH or any of that jazz.

Anyway, uh, I hope you enjoy this, my first Naruto fic.

* * *

A Tale of Two Beasts:

Harmony & Chaos

Prologue

His gaze cast shadows across the lands, signaling to all the success of his crossing. Youko Kurama crouched low, his five tails picked up enough to stay above the rough mountain soil. Eventually the torrents of energy around him from the closing void ceased their turbulent waves, allowing the kitsune to stand easily. His amber eyes twisted below at the ravaged human village, surprise marring his flawlessly inhuman features. How fortunate he had thought himself, to be near the Kyuubi's portal during it's closing phases. 'The transition between worlds must have been longer than expected,' the demon thought before wrapping himself in the caress of youki, healing the burns left by contact with the void.

The brief process of sealing off his own power stretched out, and Youko stood solemnly with his eyes closed tight, concentrating on the openings throughout his spiritual paths. Eventually the power faded. 'This plane is still warped by such a massive portal. There is no telling how much damage Kyuubi-sama has done in this time...' His train of thought was broken by the sound of voices. 'Mortals... So what has become of my lord? Oh my... Surely it is not possible... But it must be true. I will have to tread carefully.' And the beast faded away to twilight, unsure of when the energies would calm and allow his emergence once more without interference from battle eager humans.

-

Uzumaki Naruto stretched out across his shabby mattress, grinning in the bliss of awakening from a good night sleep. The blond shinobi jumped off the bed, stumbling slightly with his sleep-ridden limbs before a quick shaking left him fully awake. It was rare to be active so suddenly after awakening, and Naruto had the impression today would be a good day.

The path to his bathroom was for once in many moons clear, so there was not even the seemingly ritualistic "morning tumble" that usually left him writhing on the wooden floor. His morning shower was a quick one, and while gazing into the mirror while brushing his teeth he had to grin. Today was going to be a good day. It had to be. For once his thoughts were of the 'Which flavor of ramen shall I have' instead of the 'GOD KILL ME' type he'd been attuned to for so very long. His bright orbs of blue turned to the open doorway, feasting on the carefully wrapped hitae ate lying on his dresser on an once-ornate piece of ragged cloth that still held tale tale signs of beauty next to his blinking alarm clock that showed numerous signs of mistreatment. It was only then that Naruto realized he was running nearly an hour late for his induction to shinobi-hood. "Oh, shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. After all this and I'm going to be late?! AHHH! Where the hell did I put my-" his rant was cut short as he tripped over the carefully laid out orange suit he had placed in front of the entrance to the kitchen for the direct purpose of not missing it, and smashed his skull into the wall near his window.

"AHA! There it-Ow..." A short massage of his temple seemed adequate enough to heal the ache and Naruto speedily dressed himself in the familiar orange fabrics before tearing out of his apartment and leaping onto the roofs of nearby buildings to avoid traffic on the trek to the Academy. The usual twenty minute walk to only four minutes and the panting Naruto burst into the assigned classroom, apology fresh on his tongue.

"Iruka-sensei! I'm sor..." The room was empty. Naruto turned around and strode into the hallway, rotating to view the large clock mounted on the wall. "FUCK! Forgot to reset the clock. What the hell is a guy to do an hour early to class...?" And then it showed it's ugly head. You know that little voice you sometimes think you heard and listen to without any thought, only to realize it was your own conscience and not an instruction right when the screams started? Well, Uzumaki Naruto had an exceptionally loud mouthed 'little voice' that practically screamed "Rob the teacher's lounge! Those greedy bastards have snacks and drinks in there!"

"Hah! Good idea, Naruto! At least I'll have some breakfast today. Wonder if they have ramen..."

-

Amber hued orbs opened, and as if on cue a loud, drawn out yawn accompanied the blinking eyes. Youko Kurama awoke to darkness, the massive fox wrapped in it's tales deep within one of Konohagakure's many hidden caves dug deep into the Hokage Memorial Mountain for times of siege.

The ethereal presence of the demon lord cast writhing shadows against the smooth, rocky walls of the mountain, his five tails waving to and fro in the misty, humid atmosphere. Youko sat down with his legs crossed, setting his delicate chin in his smooth, manicured hand, caressing his flawless complexion with his clawed digits. "There is reason for this. I have taken much too long in my slumber. Hm... But I suppose it cannot be helped. Even so, I suppose this answers my previous questions. If I have been allowed to sleep away as I have, Kyuubi-sama has been vanquished... I honestly don't see how such a thing would be possible, though. Damn these fucking humans."

Youko's face scrunched into an expression that showed nothing less than absolute distaste and a thick, passionate hatred. Disgust marred his normal apathy stricken visage as he rose, channeling his youki through each limb, feeling his rejuvenated flesh tremble with power. A quick consultation to the ever present aura given off by the plants nearby revealed the passing of time to be much greater than he'd thought.

Both of the demon's amber orbs widened in shock, denial. "No. I have let it slip away from me... There is no way to return..." The aura he'd summoned dissipated, and he collapsed to his knees, staining his white robes with the dusty soil coating the ground. "I'm stuck here."

-

Naruto slurped the noodles noisily, both eyes trained on the small clock hung on the wall to his left. He'd wasted a good twenty minutes laying waste to the small break room, drinking soda after soda, and devouring bowl after bowl of ramen. But even one who acknowledged themselves as dense as he realized soon the instructors would be arriving, and he made his exit shortly sure to leave a mess just to spite the hateful Chuunin staff of the academy.

He snuck out of the room swiftly, checking both ways before he left, shutting the door very quietly. The orange clad student suppressed a wince as the door squealed suddenly as it shut, and the click signaling it latching seemed to crash, sending a loud "SLAM" throughout the building, echoing through the halls. "Fucking door..."

The blond turned away, walking calmly down the hall while scratching the area around his belly button, the skin tingling faintly, as it almost always did when surrounded by chakra. For four generations, and possibly longer this building had been filled to the brim with ninja, exposed to all sorts of spirits, jutsu, and demons. So, naturally the very walls were practically imbued with the stuff.

Naruto took a left at the next intersecting hallway, moving towards the class room. He made it to the door, where he had placed his hand onto the handle, and then paused. Why waste time? All they would be doing today is reviewing for the Genin exam that they would all take the next day. He knew what would happen. It had happened every year he took it. Deep in the back of his mind he knew he would fail. He knew it would be the same test of performing Henge no jutsu, just like it had been for the past three exams. He snorted and removed his hand. "Well screw that shit."

The young shinobi-in-training sighed softly and walked away, unaware of the pitying gaze directed at him from the shimmering brown eyes of one Umino Iruka.

-

Naruto scaled the monument with a purpose at the forefront of his thoughts, easily adapting to the rigid surface and moving with direction towards the top, holding the rope that had been fitted with a small steel claw tightly, one hand wrapped around the corded life line, the other shaking a can of paint in time with his snickers. Somehow, it seemed impossible that the genin candidate could scale this most revered monument clad in orange with a full head of bright, sunshine blond hair without being noticed, or even more so actually complete his task. And yet he continued without notice, marking the statues with his signature laugh spilling forth from the depths of his chest.

-

Youko narrowed his eyes, rising forth from the ground and patting his robes to rid himself of the collected dirt. He cast his gaze to the floor, where he'd beaten holes into the rock in his frustration. "What now...?" he muttered, running his fingertips along the outside walls, sensing a weak aura beyond. He smiled, feeling the joy permeating the aura, unable to resist such unbridled happiness, an emotion he was not familiar with. Suddenly he turned back, staring through to the blond academy student with the sight given to him by the many small plants growing through the cracks within the mountain. "Kyuubi-sama...?"

From his vision, he saw the shell of a human child, clad in horrific orange with bright blond hair. But around the blue aura surrounding the boy, and through the hellish radiation caused by such an outfit he cast his vision to the center of his abdomen, where residual chakra leaked through into a complicated seal that even he could not directly comprehend at first glance. Dark, blood red energy trickled out, casting shock waves throughout the second plane, the plane Youko saw through his plants.

He smirked, both eyes glistening with a sinister gleam. "Of course. They sealed him! No human could match that bastard's strength. So they pawned one of their own off. Filthy ningens. But with the beast in such a condition I suppose it's not so bad. I can still get what is rightfully mine."

And just as it appeared the malevolence left him. "But how should I go about getting his power...? If I devour the child, I will only gain his pathetic little energy. For the body to hold such a thing in, Kyuubi-sama is no doubt sealed inside his mind... or perhaps his soul. Same difference, I suppose. Either way, simply eating the little shit won't help me any." Youko clenched his teeth, and slammed his hand into the wall, cracking it along the path far beyond where his vision stopped, the star burst spreading along the ceiling and dropping dust onto him.

"I suppose I'll have to take some of your reasoning in order to survive this all, eh, Kuronue? After all, power can't get you everything, as has been proven with Kyuubi-sama's condition. No doubt I'd only get a similar fate..."

The kitsune sat down, thinking. "You've got to be kidding me... That's the best you've got, Youko? Come now, you're the best strategist in all of the Makai... Don't delude yourself with the illusion that these humans can be so dense... Then again... Ugh... I HATE these fucking mortals!"

* * *

A/N

A little short, but... it's just a prologue. Expect this story to run at the very least 75,000 words... Actually, knowing me, it'll either end up being much, much longer, or never finished... Here's hoping to the former over the latter, eh?

STATS:

Words: 1913 (Story)

Words: 2267 (All)


	2. Chapter 1

A/N – So, I give you chapter two. Again, this one is a little short, but for right now I'm just trying to get this started off so I can get into the really gritty stuff and get this thing on the road. Essentially, I'm trying to get enough up so I can go ahead and post this... Anyway, rest assured once I get a bit of a schedule worked out the chapters will get much longer and HOPEFULLY better. As it is, enjoy!

A Tale of Two Beasts – Harmony and Chaos: Book One

Chapter One:

The Beginning of the End; God Help Us

Several dozen centuries ago, in the land of the Makai, an infant born of the goddess Inari lay in sheets of burgundy silk, surrounded by beauty. Power swept through him, barely contained by his small form, the warped energy focusing on the area around his lower back, pushing and pulsing alongside his single tail, the tail granted to him by his birthright as a Kitsune. Blood splattered along the wall suddenly, and another tail swung free from its confines within the poor child. The flow of energy swept all the crimson liquid off his body before slowing, seeping deep into him and churning in the endless sea of chakra, reiki and youki that resided in all demons. He moved very little, perhaps a single flinch as the appendage burst from his skin, but he was silent, both eyes of dull amber swirling with endless wisdom in this infant form.

Inari stared down at her* child, a frown planted on her exquisite features. "I am uncertain of his fate, Kyuubi-chan. As Royalty he has been born into this form so similar to the humans**... I have no doubt many will seek to do him harm. And so very soon I must leave the Makai to you and my daughters... Take young Youko Kurama under your wing. Train him to become powerful, as is his right. He is the only son I shall ever have. The only one able to become a true King. It has been many, many years since I have last born a child as strong as he... And his potential is rivaled by only you, Kyuubi. I expect you to care for him as you would your own." Inari turned away from the infant, and began walking towards the massive golden arched doors that led to the Makai before continuing, "I shall take my place in Heaven alongside the others. You, as the last of the Nine Tailed must take my place. Keep my kingdom safe, Kyuubi-chan."

Kyuubi no Kitsune watched his surrogate mother pass through the walls, and felt her power drift into the clouds of the Makai, and far beyond, until it vanished completely. He smiled, and looked down upon the infant. "You and I, my young apprentice, are going to have lots... and lots... of fun."

-

Youko shifted in his sleep, the dream fading from his thoughts. Already his form had shifted into a more befitting manner. Long, silver hair had shortened to his mid back, switching the ever present ivory to a more casual, but still unorthodox red. Claws had dulled into nails, and amber orbs had shrunken and withered to a still striking, shimmering green hue. All five tails had been absorbed, and converted to youki. With blood of the Goddess Inari running through his veins, his tails not only added to his power and gave him abilities, they magnified his strength in ways no other demon could experience, not even his female siblings, as his being Male gifted him with larger stores of spiritual power and physical strength. His tails could still be re summoned and he could again regain his former power, but for now his subdued strength would be more than adequate.

The demon lord stared down at his pale, clawless hands, flexing each digit and wincing at the very slight loss of reaction time. He paused for a moment to examine his new nails, 'tsk'ing at the loss of much of their natural sharpness and the duller glaze, nearly totally absent of their usual reflective quality. But he only sighed and turned towards the exit, walking quit gracelessly with the sudden lack of his tails. Again he suddenly paused and turned towards the rock walls, summoning a small amount of reiki to his fingertips and running them along the rough surface, transforming it into a mirror of sorts. He stared back at the face in front of him, smiling slightly upon seeing his kitsune features, high cheekbones, relatively thin eyebrows and narrow eyes, along with a still flawless complexion and blemish free skin. He turned away, cutting the illusion off with a small gesture and continued his on his path towards the exit, unknowingly taking a guise eerily similar to the one he would one day take on a more permanent basis.

-

Several minutes later he found himself trekking along one of the wide dirt streets of this large village, Konohagakure. He had already came up with his plan, and now he was acting on it. Firstly, he would slither his way into the ranks of these ninja, and eventually would kill the vessel of his mentor, and/or free Kyuubi anyway he could. At first, Youko had thought of only stealing the elder's power... but as he was not of his own direct bloodline, simply feeding off his essence wouldn't directly end in his gaining all of the other demon's knowledge and youki. He would have to let Kyuubi finish teaching him... and really, even a cruel beast such as Youko Kurama doubted he could honestly betray him like that.

Youko shoved his thoughts away and directed his attention to the massive tower in the center of town. Common sense told him this was where their leader would be, and from the discussion amongst the obvious office employees around him, indeed this was where their _Hokage _resided. He walked inside, observing his surroundings and the multitude of hidden ninja stationed inside the very walls... and from what his senses told him, each and every one was trained on his position. Possibly one of their ninja magics***. Tricky bastards...

He walked calmly up to the large desk that sat in just to the side of the massive swirling staircase further in to the large lobby. Behind the woman staring up at him he could see the workings of many busy office employees, but he dismissed them and met the brunette's gaze evenly. "I would like a council with your Hokage, ma'am."

The woman's eyes remained somewhat wide, and he knew she was merely a civilian. The two bright orbs twinkled with innocence, and a bit of suspicion whirled in those dark brown eyes, "May I ask for what reason, and your name, title, and allegiance, sir?"

The demon kept his face schooled into a somewhat friendly, but serious expression. "My apologies. I am not a native to this land, madam, please forgive me for my improper manners. I am known as-" he paused for a moment, and in an instant realized to announce himself as 'Fox Demon Kurama'**** was sure to receive some definite hostility from these kind folks, and altered his speech in less than a second, without pause, "Kurama. I have no surname. I seek citizenship in Konohagakure, and to be a shinobi."

The woman nodded slightly, smiling a bit as her suspicion faded rather quickly, "That's good news. And please, I took no offense. Konohagakure is happy to welcome new blood, and the prospect of another fine shinobi is also a great treat. However, I'm afraid I just can't assign you a rank and such, you'll have to personally meet with the Hokage for such matters. Normally, if you were just wanting to join the country I could just hand you your papers and you could be on your way, but the whole military thing complicates it a bit. Just have a seat over there and I'll be right with you."

Kurama nodded politely and walked off, letting the secretary gather his papers and page the Hokage. He sat down with a heavy sigh and leaned back into the thickly cushioned, and quite comfortable arm chair, letting his head set on the wall just behind him. It wasn't long before the very same secretary wandered up to him and smiled, "The Hokage will see you now. Just follow me, if you will, please, sir." She turned around, and then faced him again, "Oh, and here are your immigration papers. I'd almost forgot. So sorry."

The walk was quite long, up at least seven flights of spiral stairs and another two much shorter flights and down a very long hall. But at last they faced the massive bolted doors that opened with very little effort from the lithe young woman. She bowed low, and he followed her example. "Here is the boy***** in question, Hokage-sama." the woman stayed in her position until the Hokage, with an aged voice dismissed her, and thanked the woman for bringing him. She rose, and again Youko followed the example she set, somewhat familiar with correct manners in the presence of superiors (he mentally snorted at this) and smiled back as the woman winked at him as she left, but didn't let himself to follow her well formed rear and the glimpse of smooth, toned flesh the slit in her skirt would of allowed him.

He smiled at the Hokage, and bowed shortly once more, before rising at the sound of the old man's thick voice, "So... you're the young man that desires to become a shinobi, eh?" Youko watched as the elderly ninja rose with ease and trained grace, standing with a strong posture. "Konohagakure is a relatively peaceful village, especially in comparison to many of its neighbors, but I find it hard to turn away any prospective soldier. I feel obliged to tell you as a ninja you will face many, many dangerous obstacles and will be forced to endure many hard ships. But it is your choice, and after I have deemed you suitable, it won't be long before you'll be in your very own squadron of Jounin led Genin... You are of course, familiar with the ranks..?"

At Youko's hesitant shake of the head he narrowed his eyes a bit, but responded anyway, "At the very lowest are the Academy Students, those who are civilian but are learning to become ninja. Next are the Genin, the lowest ranking and weakest of the ninja. Then are the Chuunin, or Journeyman Ninja. They are usually the squad leaders of Genin during war time, and take more dangerous missions than the Genin. Lastly are the Jounin, or Elite Ninja. These are the strongest of all ninja. There are other rankings, and titles, like Special Jounin, who are experts in one field, or hunter-nin, which are rather self explanatory, but hunt down bandits and the like... Of course there are also the ANBU, which are essentially the most elite of the elite. Those that handle assassinations and the most difficult of missions. They're also involved in the security of all of Konohagakure."

The shinobi's eyes returned to their normal friendly and composed, but weary look that Youko had noticed upon first glimpsing him. He still remained suspicious of the young boy... what kind of person knew nothing of the ninja world? Still, he continued, "As today has luckily been void of any pressing matters.. other than a minor incident I'm sure you've no doubt heard about (Youko smiled a bit at the reference to the blond child he'd seen earlier and the chase that had ensued shortly after he'd left) and I am free, I can see to it that you are immediately instated into the system this very day, and can see you in a squadron tomorrow. Firstly, I just want to let you know that the Genin examinations are coming up tomorrow, and that as you're already of the normal age most students graduate on, I think it would be best if you were placed on a team immediately, but if need be we can always delay that process to when you are better equipped. In any case, if you will, please follow me."

Youko did so, falling in step behind the Sandaime as the two walked out towards the massive balcony that had been specifically designed for life in a Ninja village. "Alright, firstly, do you have any known blood line techniques?"

Youko started for a moment, before answering calmly, "I have a natural affinity for plants, Hokage-sama. If I may, I could demonstrate..?" he watched the Hokage nod and saw the small charge of chakra that suddenly spread throughout the old man. He smiled and reached into his hair, drawing out a seed and flicking his hand, flooding it with a small pulse of youki and swatting his hand to the side, letting his Rose Whip fly into the air and then down onto the railing, ripping through the five inch thick hand rail like a hot knife through butter. He let the whip wither and sealed it back into a seed which he swiftly put back before grabbing the post out of the air where it was falling back and put it back into place. He shoved a small spark of his reiki in, binding the grains back together. Youko turned back to the Hokage, who was smiling slightly.

"Very impressive. I can already see you are apt at molding your chakra... let me just see if you can do the jutsu required for graduation and we can work you in. Can you perform any other jutsu...?"

Youko shook his head, "I am afraid not, Hokage-sama."

Sandaime nodded, before showing him the seals for Bushin no jutsu. "This is what is known as the Ram seal. Mold your chakra around your body and concentrate on this and the desired effect. Like this. Bush in no jutsu!" Instantly burst of smoke suddenly appeared, and as it faded, Youko saw an exact copy of the Hokage smiling at him. "To dismiss such a jutsu, concentrate on the effect and form the same seal. Kai!" The clone vanished. "Try it."

Youko grinned, and formed the seal without strain, "Bushin no jutsu." He smelled the distinct sulphuric tang in the air that had come from the smoke that had brought the Hokage's own clown out and watched as his clone stared back at him with his own shimmering green eyes.

Sandaime nodded, "Great job. I can already see you have definite potential in this field of work, Kurama-kun. Now, with the same seal, do the exact same, but concentrate on doing this. Henge no jutsu!" And in his place, as the same smoke faded stood a much younger man whom which Youko Kurama identified as a much younger Hokage. He repeated the name, and transformed into the same man that stood in front of him, smiling slightly at his success in a new area.

"Well... let's just say you pass. In all honesty, I sense great amounts of potential in you. I expect good things from you, Kurama. Don't let an old man down. Now, let's go back to my office. Fill out that paper work tonight and return it to the secretary sometime before four o'clock tomorrow afternoon. Here is a map to your residence in the Shinto Shrine Apartment Complex about nine blocks south, near the Hokage Monument. Speak with the manager in the office and he will give you your key. It has the bare essentials, and you will have free rent until next month on the thirty-first. We'll send someone to get you on..." Sandaime glanced at the small planner he carried in his robes, seeing it was Friday, "on Monday. Sometime around seven in the morning, so be prepared. Dismissed."

Youko took the map and bowed before leaving. Behind him the Hokage narrowed his eyes and stared at the closing doors. For several moments he simply stood there, but in the end he sighed. "You're getting too old for this, Sarutobi..."

-

Naruto sulked from his position on the swings outside of the Ninja Academy, eyes downcast to hide the glistening tears that fell from his misty cerulean orbs. His face was scrunched in a very seldom seen expression of sorrow and a flaring, barely hidden anger that turned his whisker birth marks a dark red in slight contrast to his flushed cheeks. He sighed, listening to the sounds of joy surrounding him. In the back of his mind, dark, wicked thoughts ran rampant. Thoughts of murder, of death, of suicide. Still the utter black presence in the background pushed these thoughts to the forefront, smiling his devilish grin at the hate his host exhibited.

"You know he only does it to protect you, Naruto."

The blond turned to look at the young Chuunin next to him, startled out of his thoughts. He sighed and looked back at the ground. "It doesn't make any sense, Mizuki-sensei..."

The teacher smiled and sat down onto the swing next to his student, "It may seem a little strange, but this is his way of ensuring you stay safe.. He doesn't want you running off as a Genin unless you are one hundred percent prepared..."

Still Naruto kept his gaze lowered, and the tears still fell. Inside, Mizuki smirked at how pathetic the little vessel was. "Hm... Well, I shouldn't tell you this... but there is still a way to pass the exam. If you can prove yourself capable, I can give you your own hitae ate and promote you to Genin. Are you interested...?"

Mizuki glanced down at the boy, smile widening at the look of wonder on his flushed face, bright blue eyes shimmering in the dusk of the late afternoon sun. "Yes! Thank you so much, Mizuki-sensei! I swear I won't let you down!"

The Chuunin smirked, "I'm sure you won't, Naruto-kun. Now, here's what you need to do..."

-

Naruto sprinted through the forest, sweat pouring down his face in thick rivulets, grasping the scroll tightly, a wide smile plastered on his cherubic face. He slowed down when he saw the old cabin ahead, and skidded to a stop, tripping slightly as his foot caught in the little track he'd created. "Now... let's see..." He spread open the heavy scroll and pointed at the first technique listed. "You! Uh... Kage bushin, eh? Well, then! It's settled! You will make me Genin!"

He read through the seals, then practiced them for a few minutes until he could perform them without pause or stumbling. "Kage bushin no jutsu!" Nothing. He felt his chakra drain heavily though, and knew he'd pushed too much. For some reason, when he drew upon his chakra stores, it felt like there was a stone shoved into the entrance of an underwater cave so tightly that he could only pull as heavily as he could, and hope it was the right amount for the technique he was trying to used. He grimaced and tried again, this time concentrating with both eyes closed. "Kage bushin no jutsu."

Still nothing. He clenched his teeth tightly and tried again. It continued much this way for the next hour and a half.

-

Youko grimaced, as the brat ran through seal set after seal set after seal set, making very little progress, if any at all. With such a naturally analytical mind, he couldn't help but pick the child apart, piece by piece, pointing out his weaknesses and mentally countering them. His small stature was practically bursting with this "chakra" they spoke of. He narrowed his eyes, shifting his vision to the second plane and observing the way he used it, and was slightly surprised. 'So... chakra is the combination of physical energy and spirit energy. I suppose this is why less spiritually sensitive demons... and just about all humans seem to be unable to sense youki or reiki, but it seems all of them can sense and actually see this chakra, as it has a physical manifestation in all planes. Interesting.'

The demon lord watched him for a few minutes, still dissecting all the flaws he had, and found quite a large number. But still, the sheer amount of energy this child had astounded him. And then, as he was about to leave for his apartment complex, he paused in mid turn, sensing a new presence. He turned back and watched the recently conjured smoke clear and reveal an exact copy of the boy holding his mentor within. He quirked an eyebrow. "Impressive..."

From a decent distance away he sensed another coming with great speed for a mortal. His gaze caught the older boy dropping in, and sat down, smiling at the prospect of viewing such a spectacle as a shinobi battle.

-

"Naruto... " Iruka sighed, hands on his knees, breathing deeply. He looked back at the boy, flushed and sweating with exertion, covered in dirt and reeking of near chakra exhaustion. He glanced down at the scroll, and then glared at the child, displeased.

"Hah! Iruka-sensei! I found you!"

"No, I FOUND YOU, NARUTO!" Iruka shouted, baring down on the boy. But his eyes softened. "What are you doing out here, Naruto...? And why, exactly, are you in possession of the Forbidden Scroll?"

Naruto looked up at him, confusion evident on his face, "Mizuki-sensei told me about this place! And about the scroll... He told me how to graduate! And I did it! He said if I learned a technique out of this scroll I could graduate and... Iruka-sensei...?"

"Well done, Naruto." another voice proclaimed, and Genin-candidate and Chuunin turned to watch Mizuki jump from the trees, poised to strike, one hand on his kunai holster, another already in the instinctual half ram, ready to fire off seal after seal. "Congratulations. Just hand over the scroll and everything will be taken care of." On the outside, the young man looked calm, assertive. On the inside, he was actually quite nervous. He knew it, though he guess Iruka was clueless, but he was positive the slightly elder Chuunin could wipe the floor with him in outright combat. Hopefully, he had them both off guard enough to have a relevant advantage.

"No, Naruto! Mizuki is just using you to get the scroll. Run!" Iruka shot forward, but his reaction timing was slightly too slow. The younger Chuunin had already shot a great barrage of kunai and shuriken at him, literally pinning Iruka to the wall of the old cabin, a single kunai piercing all the way through his left thigh, another through his right shoulder, and several more had made dozens of cuts all over his limbs. One dared strike nearly an eighth of an inch off from his throat.

Mizuki hissed, "Shut it, Iruka. Naruto, don't listen to him. Sure, he acts like he's your friend, but I'm just trying to help you out. What you don't know, is that both of his parents were killed by the Kyuubi no Kitsune twelve years ago, Naruto. And you know why this has you involved...? And why everyone hates you...? It's because, Naruto-" Here Iruka cried out, "No!"-"It's because, Naruto: YOU ARE THE DEMON FOX KYUUBI NO KITSUNE! NOW... YOU DIE!"

Mizuki crouched, and grabbed the massive shuriken off his back, spinning around and launching it at the paralyzed child. "PERISH!" But Iruka was ready, and had ripped the kunai from his body and shot off, knocking Naruto to the ground and taking the immense shuriken into his back, the Chuunin flak jacket he wore preventing heavy damage, but still the tip lodged into him broke the skin and dug into his flesh an inch or two. "Naruto... don't believe him. And don't give him the scroll. Run!" Instantly, Naruto jumped away and sprinted off, his speed defying the screams of his weary body.

"You know he hates you now, Iruka. Hah... Anyway, I'm sorry, but I've gotta go collect what is due.

'Ciao." and Mizuki sped away. Iruka grit his teeth and grasped the Fuuma shuriken with his right hand, tearing it out and slinging it into the bark of a tree. He groaned and stood, bracing himself before launching off at his fastest pace.

-

Youko followed them from a distance, smiling grimly at the display these humans were putting on. Like a modern day drama, true to form. They really thought such a weak body could be Kyuubi? Pff. He would have butchered every single living thing within the city had he truly been the divine beast. Still the kitsune stealthily followed their path, mentally prepping himself to battle if he was discovered.

-

Naruto listened to the two Chuunin talk, holding the Forbidden Scroll tightly, tears pouring from his cheeks, his face flushed with shock and surprise, anger and sorrow. "Naruto..." he could hear them. Iruka was talking about him. He silenced his already quite sobbing and leaned back a bit farther, straining to hear the two more clearly-"not the demon fox." Instantly he got the gist of the conversation, joy welling up inside him at his sensei's proclamation. He then felt the righteous anger boiling over, filling him with strength. He sped around the corner and deflected the kunai that blazed towards Iruka, and smashed his heel into Mizuki's jaw, spinning back around and landed, slamming the end of the scroll onto the hard packed, grassy soil.

"If you touch Iruka-sensei again, I'll kill you!" he hissed, glaring with burning, bloodshot eyes of stormy blue.

The Chuunin laughed, wiping the blood away from his mouth and countered, "You? Please. I'll slay you in one blow!" Mizuki leaped at him, "Prepare yourse-Huh?"

"KAGE BUSHIN NO JUTSU!"

Mizuki paused, staring in shock at the dozens and dozens of clones standing around him, and whimpered. They closed in.

-

"Well done, Naruto. Here. I've got something for you. Close your eyes..."

Naruto heard the rustling of cloth and narrowed his eyes slightly, confused. And then he felt it. "Open your eyes, Naruto." Iruka's hitae ate lay tied around his forehead.

"YES!"

A/N – Okay, so... the end was a little rushed, I admit... I couldn't find my manga, and I didn't remember the exact dialog, so I really just wanted to get it all finished off to where I could maybe start getting to the real story.

As you can no doubt already tell, I'm writing this as I think Youko would have been without the experience his being a bandit lord would bring. He's much more rash and cocky than he appears to be in Yu Yu Hakusho.

By the way, if you want I'll start writing his name as Kurama instead of Youko to avoid any possibly confusion as people will be calling him Kurama, and then I'll be saying Youko doing such actions and etc, etc.

Anyway, review my story, bitches. I don't really mind flames, and I strongly encourage constructive criticism, by the way. In any case, peace easy.

~Yrael

Vocabulary: (I'm leaving out the really obvious stuff, by the way, but expect a short vocab section in the A/N of every chapter.)

reiki – spirit energy

youki – demon energy

* - Inari is the Shinto deity of rice, which in ancient/Feudal Japan was pretty much the only major crop they had... I mean, it was... just about the only food in abundance, or really the only crop that grew with any success. Anyway, the point of this is that sometimes Inari is female, and sometimes Inari is male. I usually go along with the concept of Inari being a female, and as her messengers (children) are colored white, I call Youko Kurama her only son, as by legend supposedly Inari only had daughters.

** - Kitsune are born in a fox like form, but upon reaching the age of 100 years (in some folk tales it's 50, but I'm going to vary it up and say that some breeds of kitsune take this many years and so on and so forth) they can transform into a humanoid guise... I'm going to say that as a direct descendant of the fox goddess Inari, he is immediately born into this humanoid form. (.)

*** - Kurama isn't from there, and prior to now has never been to the Ningenkai, so during his first explorations and meeting with the Hokage he was gathering all of his information from previous hearsay of other demons and what he saw in person. He doesn't, at this moment in time, know about jutsu or any of that. Also, the _Hokage_ being in italics wasn't italicized for it being a Japanese word, it was italicized because it was an unfamiliar term to him.

**** - Getting a little tired of these, eh? Heh. In the English version of the manga (could be the English dub, though. Don't cite me on which one) Youko Kurama is translated into Fox Demon Kurama.

***** - So I thought about it... and I think it would be a little odd if Team Seven had a grown man as a Genin with them, ya know? So, I thought about it a bit further, and since this is a few hundred years before he goes into the YYH deal, he's obviously much younger looking. As he's got five tails, the way I see it is that he's about 500 years old, and as such I roughly put him at age 15 in human years. Like, he ages normally until he's ten, and then he slows down to only one year for every following century, and after 1000 years he ages only one year every following millennium, before stopping around 10,000. So... yeah. But, note that because he's a demon and without the cold mannerisms of Youko's appearance and such he appears about thirteen or so.

STATS:

Words: 4286 (Story)

Words: 4996 (All)


	3. Chapter 2

A/N: Just in case you missed the note in Chapter One, I've started calling Youko by the name Kurama, as to help avoid any possibly confusion. Oh, and don't forget, I'll be putting unfamiliar vocab terms in the bottom Author Notes. I'll be listing some of the seals by their actual Japanese names, so in case you're curious as to which seals they are, just check the vocab.

Also, in this chapter and from now on, as the normal section separators in OpenOffice don't load correctly and just leave a blank line, I'll now be using ------ to denote A/N to Story separations, whilst

_lololol_

_-_

_blah blah blah omfg tits_

will still separate the story sections.

As such, enjoy this third installment (and second chapter) of A Tale of Two Beasts: Harmony and Chaos! Oh, and you MAY have noticed how this was titled AtoTB-H&C: BOOK ONE earlier.. well... Fuck that shit. I'll just try and finish it up completely.

Any who... R&R, bitches.

--------------------------------------------------------

A Tale of Two Beasts – Harmony and Chaos

Chapter Two:

Constant Motion

The sun cast a baleful glare to the earth the next morning, dousing all of Konohagakure's inhabitants with a misty heat that drifted in and out with the wind. The trees sagged with the pressure of the great star's displeasure, and for this, Youko Kurama was not pleased. His hair, his pride and joy that he invested every single ounce of vanity left available from the usual amount he put into his overall body in general was a frizzy mess, and the long, straight strands seemed oily and overall... disgusting. Of course, these details were not truly there to all but the most dedicated and sensitive of observers. Truthfully, other than his hair being a slight bit drier than he was used to, in all actuality, it was still closer to perfect than any other humans would be, and to all but him it appeared as beautiful as ever. Still, even with this knowledge deeply ingrained in the back of his mind, the kitsune was overall not very pleased.

Ahead of him he felt more than saw the great gathering of fledgling chakra sources that were within the large Ninja Academy which now held all of that year's graduating class of Genin hopefuls. Kurama looked up and altered his path so he could sooner enter the building directly instead of moving around the edge of the fence that wound around the whole building. Besides, he despised the heat, so the sooner he entered the air conditioned academy, the better.

Kurama jogged the last few yards and jogged up the small set of steps that led to the main entrance. As he pushed open the large doors and stepped inside, he smiled and realized that even something as old and powerful as he could still feel the ever so slight trickle of apprehension's chill spreading up his spine. The Genin candidate let his highly developed senses direct him to the class room in which his "peers" all sat, waiting for their Jounin sensei to be paired up with their groups. Last night, about an hour or so after the relative excitement that the little battle between Kyuubi's vessel and both of the Chuunin had brought he'd gone to the apartment that the Hokage had assigned him and read through a few of the books that had been delivered to his residence. With this knowledge he'd whetted the appetite for which curiosity had suddenly formed in him.

The demon pushed open the classroom door and ignored the class to his left. He saw the instructor and started slightly on the inside, somewhat surprised that the Chuunin from earlier was in fact a teacher. He smiled slightly and said quietly, "Good morning... Iruka-san, I believe it was?" The Chuunin nodded, and a similar smile (this one a bit more honest than Kurama's own emulated version that seemed to be permanently plastered on him) appeared on his still young face.

"Yes! Good morning indeed, Kurama-kun. I am Umino Iruka, Chuunin and head instructor for this year's senior class. I'm a bit sad I have never had the pleasure of you being in our class, as Hokage-sama mentioned you were quite the prodigy from what you showed him during your examination. And really, manners are really underrated. You'd be surprised at how much of a pain some of these little bastards can be." at this, Iruka glanced at the young blond who held Kyuubi, but the child didn't see, as every ounce of his attention was being directed in the form of a glare in the direction of a certain dark haired boy who was looking like apathy incarnate. That was Kurama's kind of company. While Kyuubi's escapades were nothing if not challenging and usually entertaining, he often grew tired of the too malevolent, too sociable Kitsune, and knew from experience that such a combination was dangerous, if not out right deadly. The demon kept a small amount of concentration on Iruka, while his absent conscience drifted around the room, studying all of the children there.

Kurama hissed suddenly in revulsion as he spotted one of the young boys talking to a small white dog that was perched on his desk. Iruka stopped mid sentence and stared at him curiously, one eyebrow raised dramatically. "Oh, sorry Iruka-san. I choked... somehow. Give it no mind, and please pardon me for interrupting you. What were you saying, now?"

Iruka chuckled and waved it off, "Oh, don't worry about it. In any case, let me just introduce you to everybody and then you can sit wherever and wait on your sensei..." Iruka glanced down at the scroll spread out on his desk, and muttered, "Oh, dear... Well, it seems that since you're not officially ranked with the others, you'll no doubt be paired with the number one rookie, who is that young man with the black hair up there, Uchiha Sasuke... He'll be paired with Uzumaki Naruto, the only blond boy in here, and Haruno Sakura... the pink haired girl yelling at said blond. You, with those three with be under Team Seven, under Hatake Kakashi... I wouldn't normally say anything, but since you're new I'll give you the heads up. Kakashi-san seems to have developed a chronic case of being late, and it never fails, so... If you want, you've no doubt got time to take a nap, read a book or socialize or something. Really, unlike in the civilian schools, ninja students are being trained for the real world of the Ninja, and I personally feel its best that they are treated as what they are, soldiers, and for the most part, despite their age, I think all shinobi and kunoichi should be treated as legal adults. Anyway, I know you're getting sick of my monologuing, so let's get this over with."

The Chuunin stood and stretched his back before walking forward to stand in the center of the floor. "Alright, everyone. Listen up. This young man next to me is Minamino Kurama. He is new to Konoha... eh, long story short, he's now a part of your graduating class. Anyway, if you want go ahead and say a few words, or... whatever, you can. In any case, congratulations on your graduation." Iruka smiled once more and waved towards the children, and then walked back to his desk. Kurama stared up at those who met his gaze... and frowned slightly, before walking up the stairs and taking the seat next to the apathetic ninja in training that had just be vacated by that pink haired monstrosity who had taken a a battle of wits to the young blond next to her. He saw the ebony haired boy's eyes flick to him and a wariness fill them, before the small waver in his steady gaze passed and he turned back, staring ahead of him.

Kurama could sense the blond chuckling and the pink haired girl's wide eyed stare. He also chose to ignore the offending digit that pushed itself at him in the form of her dainty index finger.. that he noticed was callous free and manicured. He glanced down at his own nails, which were even more delicate looking, and smiled, before checking out the boy next to him, seeing his nails were manicured too. He looked over to the blond for a moment, and judged that at least one of these kids wasn't competition in the looks department. Once more, as it should be, his vanity ruled supreme. "Look here, buddy. Just because you're new here doesn't mean..." He turned to look at her and pumped youki into his eyes, warping them from their sparkling emerald to a fierce, burning amber and then sparked them aflame, letting visible blue energy pour off of them in fierce torrents of fire. He spoke, forcing the words out of him with a deathly taint of raw energy:

"Shut up."

and cut the flow off, his eyes resuming their normal shade of green. He turned his head back and made sure no one but the girl had seen, and winced slightly as he realized that one of the girls in the back of the room, a young, dead looking thing with blue hair and solid white eyes that reeked of pity had indeed seen, and he knew he shouldn't have done such a rash thing. But he paid the pathetic creature no mind and leaned back in his seat, laughing inside as the slack jawed tween sauntered off in a hurried fashion to the row behind him, to sit with a few other of the female graduates.

Kurama pulled out a small book he'd gotten from a merchant a few minutes after leaving his house. He had no money, so of course he hadn't paid for the damn thing, but all the same he had it now and was eager to do a bit of research into this new world he found himself stuck in. The little paperback was entitled: The Ninja Bible, and according to the back of it, it supposedly included a small guide to follow that helped increase training results, encouraged the reader to improve them self, and also had over one hundred basic jutsu listed, both offensive, defensive, and even some support category jutsu. He soon learned that they were mainly categorized under Ninjutsu and Genjutsu, but he noted that there were also references to more powerful, but similar techniques some times referred to as Kinjutsu. As Kurama was already much stronger than any person in this room in terms of both power and most likely strategy as well, he allowed himself to admit he knew nothing but a few little facts about their world and combat. Seeing as how he was a kitsune, he was a born trickster, and it just wouldn't do to take a path similar to the Demi-God Kyuubi and muscle your way around (at least until he reached his peak, that is). He would stay true to his birth right as much as he could and deceive these mortals. And to play the perfect part he would have to fit in, and to fit in, he would have to adopt their customs and techniques, if only for a short time. 'At least I hope it's a short time,' Kurama thought, and began skimming over the contents for the second time, now committing much of the information to memory.

Youko Kurama was a devious creature, a demon of both power and cunning... but at this stage in life, he was mostly cunning. Later would come the rampant slaughters that his strength would allow, where he would bathe in the blood of those foolish enough to cross him. He read through the several hundred page book with a single mindedness not found often in Ningenkai, or even in the majority of the Makai, actually. He had just turned the last page when he heard the tell tale signs of a door opening, and snickering. He closed the book and put it into one of the pockets on his black robe that he wore over the ebony mesh armor that he'd gotten upon seeing that his torn white robes were giving him lots of stares and attention that he'd much rather prefer to do without.

He watched with half lidded eyes as the gray haired shinobi who he had already identified by the way he wore his head band, and by the hair style as both their Jounin instructor and as Hatake Kakashi, the Copy Nin of Konohagakure and son of the famed Sannin class White Fang of Konoha whom had committed suicide some years earlier. Obviously, this was one talented individual standing in front of them. Kakashi glanced up at him, and nodded, "Hm... Well, my first impression is..." before grabbing the eraser that had fell on him, and flicked his wrist, embedding the item deep into the wall, "I don't like you." He turned to the window and then back to them, pointing up. "Meet me up top, ASAP."

-

"I think it would be best if we started off by letting you all introduce yourselves. It's more than likely you all know each other, but I'm glad to say I am unfamiliar with any of you, and I'm not really looking forward to working with you. So, things you like, things you dislike, hobbies, your goals... Now then, you, mopey." Kakashi smiled, and Kurama found himself chuckling slightly as the Jounin all but ignored the glare that the ebony haired shinobi sent him.

"Wait, Kakashi-sensei! Why don't you give us an example...?" asked Sakura, who had sat as far away from Kurama and Naruto as possible, and as a result ended up sitting next to their sensei, as she couldn't get near Sasuke, who was quite relieved.

"Alright. I'm Hatake Kakashi. I don't like much... I dislike a few things. I have lots of hobbies... And my goals are none of your business." as he finished his one visible eye crinkled into a smile, and all four of his pupils, including our protagonist Kurama, blanched, and thought as one, 'We only learned his name...' Kakashi coughed into his fist and pointed to Sasuke, "Uh, your turn."

"I am Uchiha Sasuke. I don't like many things... mainly growing stronger and training. I dislike weakness... and... there is a certain man I wish to kill." the young man, now known as Sasuke muttered, the last few words spoken with a distinct hissing tone. Kurama read much anger in the young boy, and found himself liking the little misanthrope more and more.

Hatake Kakashi nodded, not appearing to have known any of this, but really well aware of his goal to dig the eyes of Uchiha Itachi out of his skull already. "Alright. Next... how about you, Pinky?"

The girl frowned slightly, but stood and stepped forward. "Well.. I'm Haruno Sakura. I like..." here she blushed heavily and looked at the brooding Avenger, "My hobbies are..." a small look at Sasuke, "My goal is to..." again, she blushed and glanced back at Sasuke who was sighing at the unwanted attention. Sakura then glared at Naruto abruptly, all of the red in her flushed face gone in an instant, "I dislike Naruto!"

Kurama chuckled out loud for a few seconds at the blond's look before seeing his teacher's one visible eye centering on him. He stood at the unspoken signal, "I'm Minamino Kurama. I enjoy social activities that end in kinky sex, intaking various intoxicants, and reading. Uh... hobbies include, well, kinky sex, the intaking of various intoxicants and reading... I dislike weakness... As for my goals..." here his eyes flashed briefly, "I want what's coming to me." He smiled savagely and sat down. "Oh, and I can't stand bitchy women. Can't forget that."

Kakashi, chuckling slightly mumbled, "Amen to that... Ah! You, the blond one."

The Kyuubi vessel stood up, seeming to leap from his seat, and beamed at them, "I am Uzumaki Naruto, Konoha's Number One Comedy Ninja and Ultimate Prank Master! I like ramen, Sakura, ramen, training, ramen... and... ramen! I dislike Sasuke-teme, and the fags down at the shopping mall who never let me inside... My goal is to one day be the Hokage of Konoha. Believe it!" At his last proclamation, all of Konohagakure shivered with vile horror for an instant, and then all of them pondered this odd reaction that seemed to have no cause.

Kakashi nodded again, a little put off, "Uh... well, that was interesting. Anyway... Meet me at Training Grounds Number 7 tomorrow morning at Seven. Oh, and don't eat any breakfast. You'll only throw it up." Kakashi began to laugh, "See you bright and early!"

Kurama snorted and stood, turning without another word and walking in the other direction, heading for his home, paying no mind to his companions as they all watched him walk away before they each, in turn played out their respective roles and too headed home.

-

Kurama sat on his bed, running through seal after seal, over and over again. He knew it was possible to do techniques without actually doing the seals, but as of now he suspected it was only possible with those that required a very small number of seals, such as Bushin no jutsu, or Henge no jutsu which both only needed the perquisite and most base of all seals, the Ram seal. It seemed that the user could use half seals and double the speed of the techniques casting, as in running a half Tori seal in conjunction with a half Hebi seal, which ended in the user doing all of the seals in half the time. To be able to do such, the one performing the seals would have to have an extremely concentrated force of will, and extremely refined control. In his brief, but deep study of The Ninja Bible, Kurama had learned that the average time it took Academy Students to form seals was about 1/2 of a second. Experienced Genin could usually throw out a familiar set of seals in about 1/4 of a second. Chuunin could manage on average 1/8 of a second, and Jounin could actually perform their techniques at 1/16, but it also said that S-class and Kage level ninja could even do very advanced techniques at speeds of up to 1/32 of a second, such as the Yondaime Hokage and his most famous, and feared technique, the Hiraishin no Jutsu.

So far, Kurama thought his own 1/6 of a second was decent for how much experience he had, but still, the beast within forced him to go through each and every single jutsu that he had only just learned until he could cut that time down to at the very least an eight of a second. Anything lower was not acceptable. Kurama sighed slightly, clenched his teeth and ripped through Kage Bushin no Jutsu on a whim, not speaking aloud. Instantly, seven clones popped into existence and stared at him with a blank, vacant gaze. "Hm. That child could form many more.. Of course, I really don't think he did it without great effort on his part, and I have no doubt it drained his chakra stores something fierce. I need to become better at this method of combat. I have no doubt that if I simply fight as I would in the Makai, I may be found out and I would sooner banish myself the the seventh layer of Reikai than be shoved up some brat's asshole..." He smiled slightly and muttered, "Kai," watching his clones poof into the void, and then summoned them again, now using youki.

Suddenly, dozens of clones appeared, all pouring off white, burning auras of demonic energy, their eyes flushed a deep crimson, their nails all extended, and each and every one in the form of his true self, unlike the previous set which had been in his more humanoid form that he now took. His smile turned into a sinister sneer, "Much... much more impressive, I believe."

The rest of the night continued in much the same way, the demon clad in somewhat human shell never satisfied with average. He continued on until he brought his speed up to an eight of a second, and still continued on until six in the morning, where his resolve broke and he forced himself into sleep for a few minutes. Heavens, he really didn't need much rest with such massive amounts of reiki and youki constantly replenishing the energy his body functioned off of. Still he forced himself to sleep, and he slept quite deeply until the small alarm clock he'd stolen received a smack just before it began blaring off the time as 6:30 AM, the small rest giving him enough of a rejuvenation to justify it as 'beauty sleep'.

Kurama stood and dressed in silence, all the while his mind was busy turning over possibilities for removing Kyuubi-sama from that infernal vessel that annoyed the hell out of Kurama, even from the small amount of time he'd spent around him. True, he wasn't quite as annoying as that Sakura girl, but he was close to it. All in all, he knew he could have been forced into worser company. Just imagine if Kyuubi had been sealed into the dog boy... Kurama shivered involuntarily, disgusted at any possible contact with the mutt.

He finished dressing in one of the ten different suits he'd gotten. All were monotone in their coloring, each and every one a deep ebony that seemed to suck the color right out of anything they were near, but in Kurama's mind, it helped to fit him in to what these Shinobi folks tended to attempt and embed themselves into a role of some dark revanent few of them could hope to be close to rivaling, a demon of the shadows. Well, that's what he tried to tell himself, that he was trying to make a mockery of their emulation of darkness and death incarnate, but really, it was his vanity that forced him to buy these suits that had such a silky like material that fit perfectly and comfortably, and seemed to make the existence of chain link mesh within nonexistent, while the outside still fell into his picky range of dark colors he allowed on his body which he treated as a priest would a temple.

Kurama left the apartment building after stowing a small seed in the lock, ensuring nothing would break in without sustaining any injuries. The only window in the place was in the small living room, and he'd long since finished placing security measures around it. He really wasn't worried. There wasn't a whole lot worth stealing anyway, and for such a creature as he, he hadn't yet really tried to expand his collection. In the years to come Kurama would amass hordes of treasure so large and valuable that no being save the supreme deities that inhabited Reikai would be able to comprehend. For now his little habit hadn't been quite so developed as many centuries of living the life of a bandit would do.

He stopped on the way to the assigned training grounds and picked up a small box of sweet smelling items he was sure to be some form of treat and feasted on the dumpling sticks until he'd arrived, and realized that Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura, and Uchiha Sasuke had yet to arrive. Subsequently, he came to the sudden remembrance of the fact that one certain Jounin known as Hatake Kakashi was sure to always be late, and as such he jumped into one of the trees near the entrance path that opened up into a dusty clearing that showed previous signs of battle. The woods surrounding the rather large training ground were in many places scarred and burned, the bark of the trees cut and scratched, even charred and some wounds going so far as to actually break some of the massive plants in half. He sat in the helm of a large specimen he thought to be an Oak tree, and sighed with displeasure at the physical damage it had taken, and started sending reiki deep into it, channeling the force of his spirit into the earth to spread along the roots of all plants near his location, healing them of their woes. He finished after several minutes of concentration, and smiled as the forest seemed to glow and sway with joy at being revitalized.

Kurama leaned over the branch he had almost rested against and saw still no signs of his team mates, and pulled out his copy of The Ninja Bible and began to read over some of the more complex texts towards the back that centered around the ideology of Nindo, the way of the Ninja, which at its core seemed at polar opposites of the scale when compared to Bushido, the way of the Samurai, which even Kurama had long known about from within the Makai. Where the Samurai seemed to be more of a strict concentration on universal codes of Honor and servitude, the Ninja ways seemed to be a more personal thing, usually a vow of some sort to help the Ninja in question become more comfortable in the knowledge that their trade was a job of death, a thing which seemed for all humans a subject of great fear. Of course, seeing as how the average life span of these creatures seemed to be about a hundred years, it really wasn't too surprising.

Back on the subject of the vow in itself, it seemed they were usually codes set to align the Ninja with their chosen country to serve, or to protect certain persons or objects. The Ninja Bible happened to mention, also, that many Nukenin, or ninja who had abandoned their home country of origin and training seemed to take such a philosophy to a more destruction oriented affair, usually something along the lines of making those that harmed them deceased in the most volatile ways imaginable, or to gain enough strength to defeat Death, and all sorts of other wonderful ideas. After he finished reading over the philosophy rich chapters he marked the page and put it away in the handy compression sack that kept all objects tight in its embrace to remove the possibility of noise that was strapped to the thick, black leather sash he wore at the sound of slowly approaching footsteps. First to arrive was the Uchiha boy, hands running through the seals Kurama instantly realized to be a fire jutsu, though his eyes were trained on nothing in particular.

Next up, a mere minute later came the only female of their group, the one called Sakura. She slid right up to the ebony haired boy and attempted conversation, which the young male blew off without a glance. Kurama sighed and dropped from the tree, walking over to the other two. Both had noticed him upon their arrival, as he'd made no signs to hide his presence, so neither was alarmed at him, but the girl did step back slightly at his approach. Thinking to make the best of it, the always sociable Kurama spoke up, "Any of you seen the blond this morning? I've been out here since about six forty or so... it's gotta be around seven something now. Is he usually late?"

Sasuke turned to him, "He's Naruto. Nobody has any idea of his normal routine. When it comes to school he's either there or not. If I was you, I wouldn't try and put much thought to it. He's a waste of effort, for the most part." The Uchiha turned back to Sakura, and then looked Kurama in the eye, "If you can prove to make yourself useful, maybe we won't end up dragging along two dead weights."

Kurama smirked, " I don't think you'll have to worry about that... Oh, and Iruka-san mentioned to me that Kakashi-sensei is chronically late, so... it'd be best if we didn't sit around here and wait up for him. By yesterday's estimate, I'd say he won't be here until around eleven. Would you like to... spar... perhaps?"

Sasuke grinned, "Come."

-

Kurama stretched his arms and back, popping his joints and channeling chakra, youki, and reiki to fill his body with their power, ready to be drawn forth and reign devastation. He watched the boy do similar, and suddenly leap at him, hands tearing through seals with a sudden fluidness that Kurama felt he may have misjudged these humans. Then he felt the familiar red tint of battle fever close over him, and Sasuke might as well have been moving in slow motion. Kurama dissected the seals for a Katon jutsu, a basic fireball that he knew by description, but not be the actual name. He jumped forward, grabbed Sasuke's wrists and pulled his hand apart, then brought his own up to do the exact same jutsu, and release it just as the great boost of adrenaline that had sped him up so greatly left him with a much weaker dosage of wonderful cold fury. Sasuke flew back, smoking. The jutsu had been a weak one, not intended to kill. Even Kurama had some sense of honor deep in his cruel exterior. He smiled and jumped back, in a loose stance.

Sasuke jumped back up, a frown plastered on his face as he drew out more chakra, pouring them into his limbs in a bastardized enhancing technique he'd seen some older shinobi do without thought before entering battle. He was, frankly, a little shocked at how fast the other Genin was. Nobody but his brother had ever been able to do something like that to him. Kurama knew he was quite fast, but he hadn't realized that such speed as his own natural fury blessed him with was far beyond what most Genin were capable of. Sasuke pumped his chakra through his muscles and charged, hands forming loose half fists ready to defend or clench and attack. He felt the chakra inside him turn his body into a rocket, and his face lit up in a savage snarling grin as he lets punches rain down onto the other Genin, who's eyes were turning a faded, bloodshot amber.

Kurama resisted the urge to unleash his full power onto the boy and blocked or avoided every punch, usually sliding his hands up the boy's arms and shoving them out of the way, still moving backwards without much thought. He waited until Sasuke pulled back for a hard right, and grabbed his left arm, ripping it down and slamming him into the ground with enough force to crack the dirt and nearly knock the boy unconscious. But Sasuke only lay dazed for a minute, not breathing before coughing and drawing in a deep, loud gasp of air and jumping up, holding his left shoulder tightly.

Kurama paused and took a deep breath, and wiped off sweat that wasn't there off his forehead. "You're pretty impressive, Sasuke-kun. I think we should stop though. You're tiring me out already." He played the coy fox he really was and could see the ego growing. He smiled at the boy and then motioned back to the wide eyed pink haired Genin who, even knowing she was desperately outclassed by the two, couldn't help but throw a snotty look at Kurama, fooled by his half assed attempt at acting tired, sure no one could beat her Sasuke-kun.

Naruto arrived shortly, sweating heavily from the harsh pace from which he'd set as he sprinted from the residential area he lived in to the remote training grounds. He saw Kakashi was late and that Sakura was next to Sasuke, pestering him with questions and praises, and that the new addition to their class was smiling and waving him over. He ran over, smiling at the friendly attention he was so unused to.

"Sorry for running a little late, man. Fucking power went out when I was asleep and my clock didn't go off. Where's Kakashi-sensei?" the blond asked, observing the calm, graceful way his teammate carried himself.

The red haired teen shrugged, "Iruka-san mentioned that he was known for being late... Judging by how late he was yesterday, I'd say he won't be here until eleven. There's really not a whole lot to do, apparently. Sasuke and I had a little spar, but I wouldn't think twice about messing with Sakura. She's a bit... delicate, don't you think?"

Naruto laughed, "That's a good way to put it. Well, shit. I wished I had brought my GameDude or something. It's going to be boring waiting for another three hours. Ugh. Stupid Kakashi-sensei... Hey, didn't Iruka-sensei say something about you being new to Konoha? Where'd you come from, exactly?"

Kurama smirked, "Eh, I came from a pretty good distance off. I'm not originally from these Elemental Nations. A lot less humans and a lot more demons where I come from." That put an end to the conversation very quickly. Naruto's smile fell off his face like a ship off the edge of the earth, and he nodded slightly before muttering out a thanks and walking off to sit on one of the logs that served as benches around a heavily used fire pit that was still smoking very, very slightly. Just like that, Kurama had his answer. Naruto did know about the Kyuubi, but he wasn't sure if he really was the demon or not. He could use this to his advantage. Kurama sat on the opposite end of the camp ground and meditated until his felt the immense, but suppressed chakra signature of Hatake Kakashi approaching.

The Jounin sauntered up lazily, his lone eye directed solely to the orange, gaudy looking book he held with an steady hand. "You guys are here early."

Naruto and Sakura growled heavily and stood up straight suddenly, pointing as if their index fingers were lances of fire, "NO, YOU'RE LATE!" Naruto glared, but otherwise backed off and threw his hands into the air. Sakura just couldn't restrain herself, though, "DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG WE HAVE BEEN OUT HERE WAITING FOR YOU?! YOU SORRY EXCUSE FOR A TEACHER! I CAN'T BELIEVE WE GET THE LAZY JOUNIN... HOW DOES THIS ALWAYS HAPPEN TO ME?!"

Kakashi sighed, "Sakura, if you can't be quiet, I'm going to have to send you home with a failing grade. Now please, you're giving me a headache." Giving her no time to get started up again, he shut his book and smiled, "Now then! I can't wait to tell you guys! Today we'll be doing some survival training!"

The three who had been to the Academy all looked slightly put off at this, and Naruto spoke up, "Kakashi-sensei... we already completed survival training..."

The Jounin laughed, and his one eyes crinkled into a sickened, warped version of the happy smile he'd given them before. Even Kurama felt a bit wary at this, and stepped back. "Oh you're going to flip when I tell you the best part. This is the real thing, kids. If you pass this, you become Genin. That little graduation test was just to separate the losers from those possibly worth a damn. Now then, on to the really fun part!" His smiled returned to normal, "The exam you'll be participating in has a 66.6 rate of failure." He pulled out two bells, "Okay, here's the deal. Each of you has to... Oh. I forgot there were four this time. Oh well, same difference. Each of you must take a bell, and the one who doesn't end up with one.. or, well, the two who don't have a bell by noon will fail, not get any of this delicious food I've brought, and have to go back to the Academy. If you plan on passing this exam, you need to come at me with the intent to kill. Now-."

Naruto suddenly grabbed a kunai and snarled at him something fiercely vulgar that none of his teammates, or Kakashi actually understood, and jumped forward, intent on stabbing the lazy Jounin, eager to get down to business.. He found himself on his knees, his kunai gone and both hands grabbed and pushed to where a single shove would break his wrists. "You didn't wait until I said go... But I commend you, you came with the intent to kill." Kakashi released the boy, "Go."

Both Sasuke and Sakura vanished into the woods, while both Kurama and Naruto readied for battle, both taking a loose stance familiar to most fighters that were about brutal tactics, dirty fighting. Kurama pulled out a seed, and smirked, 'Let's see if this human is worthy.' He waited until the blond started, and then followed behind him less than a second later, the seed growing instantly into a paper thing blade of grass, indestructible by meager means, impervious to alteration by anything but youki and reiki. He grinned when the young Jounin dropped his book into his pocket and pulled out two kunai, his one eye open and bloodshot with the haze of blood lust, slightly dampened when not faced with actual known threat or panic, that all felt before battle. Kurama's blade whipped forward, bending around the kunai and heading to the wrist of his sensei, putting the edge forward intent to slice deep in and let him bleed to death.

Kakashi sensed this and his speed nearly quadrupled, pulling his hand from the Genin's grasp and smashing a fist hard into his neck, sending the red head skidding along the ground, 'Shit,' he thought, 'I didn't really expect any of them to actually try and kill me, much less be capable of it.'

Kakashi almost stopped the test to check and see if he had hurt the boy, when Kurama jumped up and sneered at him, "God damn you. That fucking hurt. Naruto, let's get this son of a bitch!" All apart of the act, Naruto fell in step, unaware of his role in this epic of Youko Kurama's making. Both shot off at the man, this time with no weapons, sensing that their threats would be returned on them without saying anything. Naruto was a brawler, hands downs. His fighting was shit, and due to the much stronger, faster, and graceful Jounin's larger stature, no ground and pound tactics would work. He fell behind Kurama who was letting his demonic nature speed his reactions up, beyond normal human means, and just below Kakashi's highly trained level. Things were different than he expected, but none of his plans ever failed. Ever.

He landed in several devastating hits, flooding youki through his fists and bruising flesh with each connecting hit, a loud crack following each strike as flesh met flesh. He went for the neck and shoulders mostly, trying to throw off Kakashi's harsh power and amazing, for a human, speed. Kurama had no doubts about it. Kakashi was strong. Damn strong. Probably stronger than any demon he'd ever faced as of yet, other than Kyuubi. But Kyuubi was on an entirely separate scale, so that didn't really count. He forced himself to move faster, and now Naruto was just sitting there, slack jawed with both Sasuke and Sakura who watched in shock as their new team mate went all out on the Jounin. Sure, only about a fourth of his strikes actually connected, and usually they were only half ass hits, but Kurama made sure Kakashi felt them. And suddenly the pace changes. Hatake Kakashi smiled and sped up even more, this time outclassing Kurama completely, countering every attack with a hard hit to the side of the head, each time in the same spot with the same force. It happened several times, and finally it was only Kakashi hitting, smashing into Kurama's skull until the boy dropped.

It was during this, when Kakashi began pounding into Kurama's skull that Sasuke shot out of the trees and cut the bells off of Kakashi's belt, throwing one to Naruto when the blond gave him a thumbs up. Kakashi turned to deal with them and they grabbed Kurama and sprinted into the trees, Naruto spamming off a couple shadow clones to distract Kakashi from their escape route. The Jounin dispatched the clones with a few lazy flicks of the wrist, and pulled out Icha Icha #79, smiling. Maybe... just maybe he'd finally found a team worth passing.

-

The bell began ringing not too soon after Kurama had been knocked out. Kakashi put away his book and waved at the trees in a "come hither" motion. All four of his students walked out slowly, Kurama holding the side of his head with one hand, eyes swirling with controlled anger. "Well, I've got to say I'm a little impressed. Kurama, Sasuke, and Naruto... you all pass with flying colors. Sakura, not only did you fail... I believe it would be in everyone's best interest if you quit life as a ninja. You made no effort whatsoever to even attempt taking the bells from me.

"You missed the whole point of the excersise, Sakura. Genin against a Jounin? Only two bells? Please. It was a trial of teamwork. And while at least Kurama and Naruto tried to work as a team, it ended with Sasuke giving a bell to Naruto and both of them escaping with Kurama. You sat in the bushes doing nothing. You made no contact with any of your teammates and simply hid the whole time..."

Kakashi sighed, "You know, actually, what the hell. You've learned the lesson well enough. Fine, I'll end up with three Genin anyway, so what's a fourth going to hurt? You all pass. You're free for the rest of the day. Meet me here tomorrow morning at 7:00 sharp. And make sure you eat a good breakfast. You'll need the energy." Kakashi saluted and executed a Konoha Shunshin, vanishing in a swirl of leaves.

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A/N: Well, first, I'd like to thank whoever it was that thought of how fast it took ninja to form seals, as that really helped me come up with some ideas for his studying/training in the adaptation to the Shinobi world.

If Sasuke seems a little OOC to you, I'm of the impression he's somewhat open to new challenges, and as such wouldn't be a total dick to someone that had a interesting look on things. I think that he's a little impressed by his attitude, and while he's wary of him, Sasuke isn't totally in the canon 'You're beneath me.' mode with Kurama. Also, I suppose the seriousness in which Kurama treats most things is a welcome relief from the immature kids he's usually with. I mean, while he's obviously a little spoiled, the kid did go through some serious shit when he was young, so I think it's a bit much for me to just outright call him a whiny bitch and bash him through the whole story... So, I'm treating him as a neutral entity in this. And I'm trying to keep Sakura bashing out of this, too, but I'm having problems with that.

This story really isn't turning out the way I thought it was. My muse is carrying me off meandering through possibilities, and I can't seem to concentrate on what I want. But I'm going to see where it takes me. So... this really isn't my best effort. I'm getting sidetracked and trying to get some chapters posted. When I get ahead some maybe I'll sit back a bit and actually write a bit better. It seems a little too complex for its own good, at the moment. I'll try and go back and edit it again later on, too. Anyway, hope you enjoyed this.

Stay tuned for Chapter Three!

Vocabulary:

Tori – Bird

Hebi – Serpent/Snake

Reikai – Spirit World (Heaven/Hell)

STATS:

Words: 6853 (Story)

Words: 7347 (All)


	4. Chapter 3

A/N: For this chapter, I had to really force myself to get back into the world I'm crafting. Essentially, I think it's time to get things moving. This should be pretty long in comparison to my other chapters, and I hope you enjoy it more so, as I'm going to try and improve. I've been slackening up on my writing technique, and I need to start giving a shit more. Anyway, this chapter covers the Wave arc, and a bit further beyond.

Oh, and yeah... I haven't read all of the Kakashi Gaiden, pretty much just the plot summary on Wikipedia (I live in rural Georgia [it's horrible, btw, and have dial up... no manga dls for me.) so some of the details surrounding the death of Obito and Rin and his back ground could be a little sketchy, so just try and bare with me. In the end, it'll work with the story, and sets the backdrop for a new one I'm about to start constructing.

And I'm SO sorry you've gotta read through yet another Wave Arc scenario, as if you're anything like me, you've gotta be disgusted with reading the same shit over and over again... but it's gotta happen.

Sorry. I'll still try and vary it up a little, and I'll probably just end up summarizing some of it, though I don't like taking those kinds of short cuts.

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A Tale of Two Beasts – Harmony and Chaos

Chapter Three:

The Rift Between

Several weeks had passed since the conception of Team Seven into Kakashi's life. As of then, he hadn't passed any other possible pupils, and really, he was having mixed feeling about this current batch. Most of those who had previously failed had been morons. Some strong, some weak, some cunning, some idiotic. But in this group, he found a mutual tension that somehow kept them bound together. It seemed as if the threads of fate had grasped around their little group with a tenacious hold, and had no plans to be letting go. Kakashi sighed, running both calloused hands through his silver locks, clenching tight to ease the pain of an incoming head ache that always came after awakening from any form of a deep sleep.

Kakashi knew the cause to be his nightmares, those terror filled trips through hell that visited him during rest. His mind had by now learned to block his conscious self from remembering them, in an attempt to save his sanity, but still such horror caused him agony. The migraines pulsed, beating against his skull. He knew it wouldn't be too much longer before this routine forced him to either kill himself or go off on a suicide mission he knew someone as valuable as him had no business going on. Year after year the pain was worse, and he could feel insanity closing its deathly cold, skeletal grip around him, choking rational thoughts from his mind and filling him with the panicking adrenaline that he had only felt once before, after the deaths of Rin and Obito. Yondaime had saved him then, but with the great shinobi gone... nothing he had discovered, and no one he knew of could cure him of this manic disease that ate away at him.

With a final sigh, he straightened up, and reached for the little orange book next to his alarm clock and smiled faintly. There wasn't a Jounin alive that had no quirks of their personality. It was an escape, a self centered behavior they set on themselves in an attempt to make themselves more than what nature had made them. They set their image to beyond sky high perceptions, and acted like the world revolved around them. If they didn't, what more reason did they have to continue living the life of a death dealer, a ninja, an assassin. A good shinobi, an evil shinobi. Slice it any way you want. They were all heartless beasts. Brutal, savage monsters. Each and every one of them. What's more, all of them knew this, deep down inside. Very, very few could openly cope with this, and those that did, usually ended up like the estranged Sannin Orochimaru. A cold, lonely, hateful thing that desired nothing more than to cause as much pain as possible before someone finally grew tired of them and killed them, usually in a very gory, very extravagant manner.

Kakashi had a routine, deeply set in the fiber of his being since his rigorously active days as an ANBU captain. He showered at night, slept from 9:00 PM to 5:00 AM, stretched and worked out to 5:30, showered again and brushed his teeth, and then ate a carb heavy breakfast before finally dressing and departing his home at 7:00 sharp. After this, he walked to the Memorial Stone and talked to Obito and Rin, trusting the guardians of the Stone to take his words to the departed. At nine, for he never spent less than an hour and a half just talking to the ghosts of his past that had changed him so, he would leave, off to his normal duties.

Hatake Kakashi was a powerful man. In his Genin days he had been trained personally by the Yondaime Hokage, Kazama Arashi in ways of the ninja, and specifically, offensive techniques, for those are of the like which piqued the young shinobi's interest. As a Chuunin, he'd been on literal dozens of assassination missions with elder Chuunin, and toward the end of his Journeyman Ninja period, he'd gone on missions bordering suicide of the spirit. Coupled with hardened shinobi and kunoichi, all of the Jounin rank, for at that time Kakashi was undoubtedly the strongest Chuunin, he'd slaughtered hundreds. The missions passed in a blur of carnage. As the Yondaime had been a flashy ninja, many of the Chuunin's ninjutsu were devastating acts of rampant destruction that butchered dozens per use.

Before the death of Rin and Obito, he'd been noted as a demon in human guise by many civilians. The boy who left in darkness, and returned when the shadows were gone, covered in gore and smelling of gratuitous amounts of coppery blood. He spoke very little, and was always fixated with a weary look and a slight grimace/grin that carried a sinister edge. Had the young Chuunin been assigned the fateful mission that ended with Kakashi dragging what was left of Rin and Obito back to Konohagakure with blood caking his left cheek and a make shift eye patch crafted from his tattered head band covering up said socket, things would have been much different. Say, the prodigious shinobi slaughtering as many of his fellow Konoha ninja and departing in a manner similar to the enigmatic Uchiha Itachi, a few years later.

During the time in which his mind had blocked itself off from all emotions, the Chuunin turned ANBU had become a killing machine previously of that time never before heard of. Hatake Kakashi, Copy Ninja of the Leaf was a horrible thing, a monster clad in human skin. Hundreds, if not actual thousands had fell to his hands. Men, women, children, nothing mattered to him in this state. Infants burned from fires he sat, a jealous heir's wish done for the right price. Through it all, the Sharingan burned everything into his memory. For all the jutsus and techniques and information he'd learned, his sanity was the price.

And then, after working with a young ANBU by the code name of "Weasel", he'd retired from his squad. Itachi had, even then, been far too gone in his coldness to be revived. Kakashi wasn't going to let himself turn into that kind of beast. For far too long had he caused death in a manner swifter than the sky cast lightning, and for far too long had he aged beyond his meager years.

Now, nearly a decade later he walked down this oh so familiar path, it's winding stretch set in stone, decorated delicately with rare, exotic flowers that radiated sublime peace. His visible eye rose, meeting the sight of the small black stone jutting from the landscape like a tumor, it's noble quest warped in Kakashi eye to maim like a knife wielded with deadly intent.

He approached warily, his movements loose and relaxed, "Good morning, Obito, Rin. It's been a decent number of years, I suppose, since I last saw you two... I'm a little regretful that our team had to be hindered by an ass like me... This team I have begun to train are amazing. The blond I've been talking so much about lately, Naruto, is so full of potential that's it's out right ridiculous someone hasn't tried to tap into those resources he possesses. He is very similar to you, Obito... Looks a bit like Arashi-sensei, too. The Uchiha boy is fast, and strong, but his chakra control needs some work. Sakura is very smart, but lacking in many important areas. In everything but chakra manipulation, I'm afraid she's got the short end of the stick," Kakashi's voice sharpened a bit, "The Minamino boy, Kurama... He's a sly one. It's somewhat difficult to imagine someone so... damn cunning not being a spy of some sort, especially considering his history and the lack of time spent here...

"One thing Konoha needs to work on is its immigration policies. I'm really thinking they're far too lax... But, it's nearly impossible to imagine him as being a spy. He is lacking in lots of knowledge common for a Genin, and I really think he's just... a prodigy. Really, the term is getting tossed around a bit too much what with all the clans running around. Where Sasuke performs quickly, Kurama seems to do things instantaneously. Where Naruto manages to go for hours on end without stopping, Kurama pushes past, and seemingly with ease... And he grows so rapidly. Each and every day he seems to know more and more techniques. Each and every day his chakra grows more potent, more concentrated, more abundant. His speed, his strength, his wit, everything..." the Jounin turned away from the stone, looking towards the Hokage Mountain before speaking again, "They were getting a bit antsy and finally got me to request a C-rank mission. We'll be starting it today," he paused and turned back to the stone, "But really, I think that's enough about them, " Kakashi finished, his slightly narrowed eyes returning to normal and a smile filling what was visible of his face.

"Now then, how's about we catch up on the latest issue of Icha Icha, Obito?"

-

Kurama watched his teammates from the log he sat on, thinking. He'd seen Kyuubi play tricks on humans before. The kitsune lord could open portals to the human world fairly easy, and could shift it to appear as a doorway or tunnel of some sort, something a human would enter with little thought or apprehension. He'd then put them through terror after terror, sometimes through a series of illusions, or just burn them until they passed on, or just eat them alive. Kurama had never eaten a human, and was curious as to how it must be to now be imprisoned inside what you took fed off. Kyuubi had no love for humans whatsoever. They were pawns, tools, toys, and more importantly, they were food. How did the beast do as he did, cracking open a mortal's skull and drinking down the mashed remains of their brain to access their knowledge before he split open their torso and devoured their warm innards. Personally, Kurama couldn't see what was so pleasant about dining on the much too metallic tasting things that had such filthy habits. And as he was spoiled and had never fought to survive as the Kyuubi must have, he had not attained the habit of treating the humans as a delicacy, or learned to taste the spirit, the very fiber of these creatures that was somehow imbued into their fleshy shell.

But there was one thing Kurama had learned from watching his mentor's ways involving the devouring of humans. That horrible, burning, lustful, hungry gaze that Kyuubi cast on all his victims. Not of the sexual greedy look that males turned to their female counterparts, but that look a predator gave to those it hunted. That sinister, devilish glare Kurama had deduced to the glare that instilled within your prey the images and the sounds, smells and ultimately, the utter terrifying idea of being consumed, torn open and eaten piece by piece.

Still, while he could simulate such a gaze, Kurama didn't have that heartlessness towards the species, that defiling hunger needed to truly see the humans as prey to fully emulate such a demonic look. And for this, he was glad, for if he had indeed gained such a gaze, he doubted he would have ever lasted this long in this village. Sure, he could probably take out a good hundred or so shinobi if he was fully powered up and fueled by that enrapturing battle fever that took him, but after seeing how truly powerful these humans were and lacking that god-like power Kyuubi possessed that could warp the dimensions at will, Kurama knew sooner than later he would fall.

"Kurama!"

The crimson haired shinobi looked up at his name, centering his vision on the blond that had called to him who stood a few feet to the left of him. "Yes, Naruto?"

"I just saw Kakashi coming from the Memorial Stone! Do you think we'll be able to go on that C ranked mission? I'm so fucking sick of these bull shit ones... Mowing grass? Please... and if I have to catch that damn cat one more time I'll tear his fucking head off and make that fat bitch eat it!"

Kurama chuckled and stood, stretching as he turned and walked over to Naruto who motioned for he and their other two partners to follow him to the clearing entrance. Naruto waited until Kurama was standing next to him and began to walk, Sasuke following with the entranced Sakura trailing behind him less than a foot away. "I'm not sure... I really hope so. I'm looking forward to testing myself against some real opponents." He pulled out The Ninja Bible and flipped its well worn pages open to somewhere in the center, "Says here that if there are any possible enemy encounters, they'll most likely be nothing more than bandits, but it's unlikely that there will be any enemy ninja, even of the Genin rank... Still, it's gotta be more entertaining that cleaning yards."

Naruto grimaced, "You know, he might not have even been able to get us a C rank! What if we're stuck doing D ranks for months?! I talked to Chouji and Shikamaru, and according to them none of the other teams have had anything above D rank... Man, I cannot see us pulling weeds three months from now."

Kurama nodded, sliding his book back into the self sealing pocket he always carried it in, "Major cock would that sucketh, Naruto." The blond laughed loudly. While Kurama really had no love for any of these humans, he'd came to the conclusion that such an attention starved, and magnetic personality possessing person like Naruto would be more cooperative with a friend figure than someone who barely acknowledged him like the Uchiha boy, Sasuke, did. And maybe, just maybe, this period spent here would in the end make him much stronger, so why hurry this along? After all, if there was one thing Kurama was if he was nothing else, it was cunning, and who was he to deny himself more power in the long run?

-

Team Seven met Kakashi at the opening to the clearing. Hatake Kakashi turned on his heel without looking at them, eyes boring a whole in the small orange book he held. He began walking away, and without a pause motioned them to follow with his free hand.

The trip to the Hokage Tower took less than ten minutes, and during the time they spent walking, none of them spoke. Sasuke and Naruto kept themselves occupied with prayers for a C-rank mission, Sakura praying for Sasuke to make a move on her, and Kakashi and Kurama both scanning their own respective texts.

As they entered into the Mission Assignment station Kakashi put his book away and leaned in close to the unaware Umino Iruka who sat slouched with his head propped up on his crossed arms, seconds away from falling asleep. "Eh, Umino-san?"

Iruka shot up straight, then upon seeing Team Seven smiled, "Oh, uh, sorry. Here for your mission assignments, I guess. I've got a ton of D ranks in right now... The daimyo's wife has lost her cat again and-"

"NO! I REFUSE TO CATCH THAT FUCKING CAT EVER AGAIN," screamed Naruto, startling many of the slouching Chuunin that sat inside the office.

Kakashi's visible eye crinkled into a smile, "Actually, Umino-san, we're here for a C rank mission..."

Iruka frowned, "Well, don't you think it's a bit too soon for a C rank? None of the other Genin teams have gone on one yet."

Kakashi's eye arched further, "That's kind of the point, Umino-san."

As much as he disapproved of Naruto being sent on something potentially dangerous, the Chuunin began searching for something, and after a few seconds of flipping through the folders, settled for something on the latter end of the C- pay ranking. While there were main rankings like D, C, B, A, and S, they were actually split into such ranks as A , or B-, where they leaned towards the next rank. Countries often paid extra to have their missions to be ranked as so a team Chuunin and a Jounin would be sent instead of a Jounin and Genin team. It hadn't yet been officially worked into the record systems for individual ninja records, but it was in the works to add some weight when being judged for promotion to Jounin.

"Here ya go. You'll need to speak with the Hokage before you leave, Kakashi, so please do so. Good seeing you, Naruto," Iruka said. He smiled and then stood, waving them off and heading to the kitchen for some coffee.

Naruto spoke up, "Wonder what's up with him... seems a little off today, eh?"

Both Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke nodded, seemingly without noticing their acquiescence to his question. Kurama turned to the blond, "How does he normally act, then?"

Naruto shrugged, "I dunno... just not like that. Seems a little... mopey."

Kakashi understood the Chuunin was worried without giving it much thought... but the notion seemed so foreign to his four Genin that it just passed right over their heads. "Yo, can you shut up, please? I'm trying to read..." Kakashi looked at the large clock ticking away the seconds, and cursed quietly. He closed his book and set it away, "Follow me to to Hokage's office... and that request for silence has turned into an order... It's too early for that noise."

-

The Sandaime Hokage whispered into Kakashi's ear, "Watch the Minamino boy. Closely." Kakashi nodded very subtly, and backed away from the Hokage, turning and motioning to his party to gather closer.

"We'll be leaving in thirty minutes, and this mission is sure to last no shorter than a week, so pack for an extended stay. Meet me at the main gate as soon as you're ready, and no horsing around. Dismissed." Each of his Genin saluted and darted off, the crimson haired Kurama performing a quick Konoha Shunshin to escape the large office, the others simply sprinting to the balcony and leaping off.

The Sandaime turned to look at the Jounin, "I'm feeling that there is something off with this mission... I've sent Tazuna-san off to the cafeteria... and I know he's not telling the whole truth about the premise of this mission. Something will happen. Be careful, Kakashi." Said Jounin nodded, backed away a step, and saluted, then teleported out of the office, leaving the Hokage to his own thoughts.

-

Kurama pulled open his dresser, drawing out six additional suits that were pretty much identical to the one he now wore, though he also packed one casual outfit. He folded them up and sealed them into a scroll he labeled "Clothing" in bright, blood red kanji, and laid the scroll alongside a few others he would be carrying. Each was neatly stacked against the next and put above the last to form a, circular bundle which Kurama felt would be easier to grasp and hold than some of the ornate patterns which he had observed many a ninja using. He pulled out a strand of nylon rope and pulled it tight around them, tying it off with a slipknot before grabbing the bundle and tossing it into the black, heavily padded sack he'd gotten earlier that week. Kurama tied it closed and threw it over his shoulder.

As he walked out of his apartment, locking the door with a pulse of youki which forced the plant harbored inside the locking mechanism to grow and hold it shut, Kurama began thinking deeply about the situation he was in. How, exactly, was he to go about this? He'd already learned that the human who had crafted the seal on the blond's stomach had been the most powerful shinobi to ever live in this village, and many people whom he'd spied on had believed with all their heart that the Yondaime was actually the greatest ninja to ever live, period. If such a man was able to stop, and even imprison his mentor, then how could he, at not even a sixth of Kyuubi's power, be able to free him from such a beast of a man's seal?

Kurama found himself standing at the gate sooner than he thought he would, his thoughts still a jumble of hopeless paradoxes about how the seal must work and how to counter it, and the heavy presence of guilt about not being able to assist Kyuubi. Not only could he not just kidnap the child, as obviously Kakashi and the Iruka man kept close tabs on him, and the great elder of this village, the Hokage, kept that infernal crystal ball trained on him for periods no less than 24/7, he surmised. It would be suicide to attempt it. He couldn't even defeat Kakashi, so how was he to go about destroying the most powerful ninja in the village?

Killing him was out of the question, which he'd already figured out shortly after awakening. Not only would that not accomplish what he needed to accomplish, it would send Kyuubi's soul into the eternal void. Kurama was no fool. Kyuubi was a demi-god. Reikai wouldn't be able to hold a creature that rivaled Enma. He would be destroyed and cast into the great trash bin known as Oblivion... And if he killed Naruto, no doubt he would be killed soon after. He couldn't open portals to the Reikai or Makai as Kyuubi could, and at which the speed he'd seen some of these ninja move, he had doubts about even being capable of fleeing them successfully. Kurama was brought out of his reverie by a loud shout, "Yo! You're here early!"

He looked up, and saw he'd been very close to running into the blond shinobi that was the center of his thoughts, "So are you."

Naruto shrugged, as if avoiding the comment and muttered with a sort of gritty, angry rasp, "That fucking Tazuna is really pissing me off. Stupid sack of whore shit. I tell you, that stupid piece of trash doesn't know a fucking thing about me! I'm not some god damned pipsqueak. I'll eat that mother fucker, you hear me?" The short blond glared up at Kurama and shoved a finger into his chest, then suddenly pulled back sharply, looking confused, "Er... I dunno why I just said that. Sorry... I'm not normally, well... like that."

Kurama's eyes narrowed and stared hard at Naruto's stomach while the boy's attention was on his hands that were being held aloft in front of him, palms up. On his second plain of vision, he sensed a great burst of power too warped and inhuman for most of these shinobi to sense. Kyuubi was affecting the young one, and Kurama was of the sort of thinking that his presence being so close to his Lord's own was doing nothing if not helping Kyuubi influence the boy. He smiled, eye relaxing, "No worries. Hey, look. It's Kakashi and the others. I think they saw us; looks like they're heading straight for the gate guards. We better catch up."

-

The trip seemed to take forever, though in reality, the distance between the two lands wasn't all that far, only a two or three day trip, and only three if you were crawling there. Without the burden of Tazuna, they could have made it without even stopping for the night, but as it was, they were forced to stop as soon as the sun fell below the horizon and they were following the trail by star light.

Hatake Kakashi suddenly stopped in the direct center of a clearing and held up a closed fist, signaling to his subordinates to also cease movement. He signaled to Sasuke and Naruto to both search the area for hostiles or dangers, and Sakura sprinted over to Tazuna, clenching both hands around kunai. The elderly bridge builder looked startled, and asked quietly, somehow sensing the tension, "What's going on?"

Sakura whispered back, her eyes never pausing in their scanning of the dense forest around them, "We're stopping for the night. He sent the other two to check for any possible enemies, and I'm guarding you. Occasionally enemy ninja will wait until their target has paused and has his guard down before they attack, so its now become standard procedure of Konohagakure ninja to routinely check your surroundings and remain alert after finding a possible campsite, for security's sake."

Had Kakashi heard her, no doubt she would have been severely punished. To reveal any, even minor details surrounding the policies Konoha had about it, was treason, and even one so young would have been knee deep in shit. But as it was, the girl talked about why they had to do so, and what got it started, and basically gave the foreigner a back stage pass to their camping procedures so the man could counter any security they set up without difficulty. Sure, that wasn't going to happen as Tazuna wasn't against Konoha, but had their charge been as such, then most likely many shinobi and kunoichi alike would die until Konoha changed its methods again. And who's to say they ever would, as who's to say their measures during rest periods weren't proficient?

Kurama, as per his role in their "securing camp site" thing stood next to their sensei, poised to react and counter any enemy attacks. Kakashi waved his hand as soon as Sasuke and Naruto returned, and they all relaxed. Kakashi peered out into the forest, and after a few seconds turned around and faced them from his point at the head of the party, "Pitch the tents. I'll take the first watch. Kurama, you'll take second watch, and Sasuke, you will take the last one. Now get some sleep. Oh, and Naruto. Stay close to Tazuna-san... just in case."

Unlike the other Genin, Kurama sat up beside Kakashi with his arms crossed, both sitting in a cross legged position. The elder Jounin looked down at him with his one visible eye, "You not heading in, Kurama?"

The crimson haired boy cast him a gaze with amber eyes, "I don't need much sleep. I draw nutrients from the plants around me, and my body heals much faster than the average human. I don't need to shut down like most do." Kurama settled in and leaned against the massive coniferous tree at his back while Kakashi sat straight up. "I also needed to ask you something, Kakashi-sensei..." He waited until the Jounin acquiescenced to his request and continued, "Well, I'm afraid many of the shinobi in high positions within Konohagakure seem to see me as a threat, an anomaly. I don't wish to be seen as an outsider... I wish to be trusted by your village. Suppose any of them get some nationalist tendencies towards me and tend to get violent. How should I approach such a situation. I don't think my status as a shinobi allows for random slaughter, even in self defense."

Kakashi didn't hesitate, "You incapacitate them. Personally, if one of our civilians is stupid enough to assault a shinobi, I think they deserve some kind of punishment, and from the way you fight, I'm sure if they were slain, it would be quick, and more to the point, a very clean kill. Incapacitate them, then bring them in to the tower. Ibiki-san will take good care of them. Believe it or not, many of the non-militaristic inhabitants of our village don't like the ninja. If they care not for those that protect their way of life, they deserve no way of life." He turned and stared Kurama in the eyes, his single orb burning with intensity, easily matching Kurama's little flare of youki. "Don't abuse your power. And get rid of those feelings of wanting trust. I'm being frank with you, Kurama. The civilians are wretched little people who have limited themselves to an insignificant existence. They threaten you, you do what you need to do, but the only way to gain their trust is to be their slave. And you and I both know that you would be the last one to do as such, aren't you?"

Kurama didn't nod, as he knew he didn't need to. He stood, "Thank you, Kakashi-sensei," he muttered, and turned towards the tents. Maybe he did need some sleep...

-

His dreams came as without mercy as they often did. Horrible, wretched things puking filth into his thoughts, leaving the kitsune writhing on the futon he lay upon within his tent, images of his mother stretched upon a cross, nails shot through her arms and legs, screaming as the humans around her tossed stones that broke skin and bone as they struck. Next she was strapped to a stake in the ground, burning in a grotesque fiery torrent of yellow, the smell of burning flesh filling the air.

As always, he slept on. The dreams ceased only when daylight began creeping through the thin canvas of his tent, and while his body had done the job of recuperating, his mind was still in turmoil. He had been nearly a hundred years old before they'd actually met, but the time he spent with the Goddess he cherished, as would any kitsune. Considering their bond of blood, it was pretty understandable the feeling was only intensified.

Kurama had long since learned to quit chalking it up to his dreams to tell the ever foggy future, so he wasn't worried about her well being, especially since she was virtually immortal, but he was weary all the same. Some times his mind went against his better interest, and one as powerful as his naturally was nae impossible to control when asleep.

He sat up and stretched, shoving a quick, physical burst of youki out and burning all the dirt off him and cleansing his body. The shinobi stood and pulled out his clothes, exchanging his old set for a new, clean uniform of the same color and type. Kurama dressed methodically, his thoughts preoccupied with how he was going to go from here. He knew he could only roll with the punches for so long, less he inadvertently kill someone and be found out, or some similar "accident" happen.

Soon his thoughts had faded to the background, and he was traveling at with his comrades, just behind Tazuna. Sasuke stood at the helm of the party, with Kakashi in the middle standing next to Sakura. Again they traveled at a slow pace to compensate for Tazuna's taxing presence. But according to Kakashi, they had made the half way mark, and come morning they would arrive at their target area. His senses were clouded, but even so, he knew an ambush lay ahead and used common sense. He alerted Kakashi who nodded nonchalantly and kept moving. As such, he kept walking and didn't mention it again, though he did let chakra start churning, ready for the call.

-

The ambush came in the form of a puddle that suddenly shot from the ground and tore Kakashi apart. Kurama had seen the quicker than lightning hand sign that Kakashi had performed and thrust his palm forward with little concern of harming his teacher, pushing out a torrent of raging chakra that intercepted the two figures in their path towards the Genin, burning off their clothes and melting the light armor the two wore. Their skin flaked off as the hellish fire consumed them, completely knocking them off their course and slamming them straight into one of the many massive trees, bones cracking audibly. Kurama cut the flow off and leaned on his knee, grasping his wrist tightly. "Overkill, eh?"

Seconds later Kakashi had appeared and observed the two deceased shinobi. "The Demon Brothers of the Hidden Mist. C-Rank missing nin. Good job, Kurama... but you might want to try leaving some alive in the future. Information is one of a ninja's most important tools. Also, use less chakra. Tighten the passage and force it out in a more accelerated manner, like putting your thumb over a hose." Kurama mentally slapped himself in the face for having not done so in the first place, and chalked up another point on Kakashi's score for annoyances. Just because it was good advice didn't mean he wanted to hear it from a fucking human.

"Hai, Kakashi-sensei."

Kakashi worked out a few seals and burned what was left of the two into ashes, then another ninjutsu sent them flying on the wind. He motioned ahead, "Kurama. Carry Tazuna. We're getting to Wave Country in the next hour, come Hell or high water. Understood, everyone?" At three instant nods and a single jerk of acknowledgment from Tazuna the party shot off at break neck speed.

-

"Kakashi, I feel something."

The Jounin screeched to a halt, and his four Genin followed his example. "I know, Sasuke. I can feel his presence. It's a very strong shinobi, whoever it it. Kurama and Sasuke, prepare to defend. Sakura and Naruto, hang tight to Tazuna. This is my fight. Only engage the enemy when no other option is possible."

Kurama set Tazuna down to let him fall back to a safer distance, and charged his chakra, lacing each burst of energy that burned through his veins with a torrent of youki. He remained in a relaxed state, opposed to Sasuke who was arched forward, arms poised in half ram seals, his eyes eager for bloodshed. Naruto and Sakura stood facing away from each other with Tazuna in between. The mist, only minutes before a faint, moist breeze now covered everything, blinding the party.

"You're earlier than I expected. I suppose it was a bad idea to trust those worthless brothers. Of course, it's not really surprising they couldn't hold you off for very long, considering their opponent was the infamous Copy Ninja of the Leaf, Hatake Kakashi. Tell me, how's your father doing these days?"

The voice carried to their ears had a sinister, malevolent feel to it that sent shivers down Kurama's spine. This man, clad in a minimalistic uniform of gauze and cloth with a zanbatou strapped to his back, stepped out of the mist and glared daggers at each member of the party, his eyes only touching Kakashi. Kurama had felt similar emissions from Kyuubi, and... well, pretty much every demon he'd encountered. This man was worthy of his attention. Of this much, he was sure.

Kakashi however didn't seem to take heed of the alarming amount of killing intent pouring off Momochi Zabuza and armed himself with a kunai, as well as arming his Sharingan eye, to which the ebony haired Sasuke gasped with a startled step backwards, his battle lust slackening in shock. Their tutor took little notice of his pupil's amazement and alerted his party as he addressed the shinobi, "Not very well, Momochi Zabuza, Demon of the Mist." Kurama's eyes widened, and Kakashi continued, "Team Seven, do not interfere. Defend our charge." The two Jounin shinobi shot at each other with lightning quick speed, exchanging blows in rapid succession.

Kurama stood still as his emerald eyes followed the swift movements the two warriors made without much effort, his mind whirling. 'Would Demon of the Mist just happen to be a title? Then again, perhaps he is a hanyou of sorts. I've heard of such half breeds, but I can't imagine anyone letting such a worthless creature exist. Then again, I suppose they'd make good troops in a human world. Even with inferior blood to the pure, most would still be much stronger than a human and require much less, resource wise, the live and be manged... If I'm ever in charge of a human colony, I think I may mass produce the little bastards... Bah, it's obviously a title. I smell no scent of demon kind whatsoever, and while his movements are trained and graceful, he's still not at home in battle, no matter how much he might believe he is... Kakashi should have little trouble with this one, now that I see the strain hidden under that mask of gauze he wears.'

As it were, Kakashi did seem to have the upper hand by a wide margin. Though Zabuza's attacks were powerful, quick and his counters succinct and punishing, Kakashi performed just as well with much less exertion, his face free of the wrinkles wrought by concentration, and little perspiration. In stark contrast was Zabuza, who, while never faltering, looked as if he were about to blow a blood vessel within his skull. Suddenly Zabuza leaned into a punch he was sending towards Kakashi, then spun out of the way, drawing his giant sword and speeding towards Team Seven and Tazuna with a deadly purpose. Kakashi instantly reacted and sped forward, intent on stopping the Demon of the Mist from completing his objective.

Kurama was a bit faster, and his youki blasted forward, and a blade of grass he'd picked from the ground halted the assassin's path with a fatal impact, the thin, razor sharp makeshift sword splitting through Zabuza's sternum, the man's momentum further pushing him down the long shaft until he lay mere feet from Tazuna, but his blade had dropped from his hand the instant the grass penetrated his chest and exited his back. Kurama pulled on his weapon, and the movement sent Zabuza to the ground, split open from the chest through his skull. Team Seven watched in repulsion as his ruined gray brain matter leaked and spread onto the ground from his split skull, mixing with the crimson blood which also poured from the contents of Zabuza's corpse. Kurama let his blade of grass shrink and fall into the breeze where it fluttered for a few moments before falling to the ground. He smiled, "One for Konoha."

-

Kurama, carrying Zabuza's massive blade, walked behind his teammates and just in front of Kakashi, who had the black bag containing the Demon of the Mist's corpse slung over his shoulder. "Kakashi-sensei... Do we get a monetary bonus for killing Zabuza?"

The Jounin nodded an affirmative as they began crossing the bridge into Wave, "Yes. I imagine you'll all receive a bonus as well, especially Kurama. Bringing back his body will provide the proof, and they'll be able to extract some genetic information from it. We'll throw his sword in the treasury, or some vault or something and I'm sure you'll all get a bonus for recovering an artifact like that. Though it was made recently, all of the Mist's Heavenly Swordsmen, of which Momochi Zabuza formerly belonged to, have masterfully crafted blades all worth a hundred times their wielder's weight in gold," Kakashi finished with, "Also, the mission is at least a B rank, now that we've encountered such as powerful opponent..."

Hiding the small smirk which threatened to blossom across his face, Kurama subconsciously tightened the grip on Zabuza's zanbatou, "Perhaps we could just sell off the sword...?" Kakashi made no reply for several minutes, and they merely continued to walk across the bridge.

As they grew closer to the entrance, Kakashi spoke on the subject, "You are a soldier, Kurama. A soldier that fights for his country before all things. Konoha comes before you wants, your goals, your god, and your very life. If you find this not to your liking, and you'd prefer the life similar to that of the man you just killed, then by all means, leave and sell the sword off. For some reason I feel a the way of the mercenary suits you, Kurama... But remember this, I catch you giving any attempts at robbing Konoha of this treasure, I'll consider our relationship void and you will be cut down. Am I understood?"

Kurama nodded an affirmative, "Yes, Kakashi-sensei. Forgive me."

Their sensei paused and tilted his head to the side to look at the motley group of Genin behind him, "Good, because I've taken quite a liking to you little bastards. Now come on, the mission isn't quite over yet."

In the short span of time since the disposing of Zabuza, Tazuna had revealed a few little hidden matters pertaining to their mission. The summary was that the Wave was in deep shit, and that Tazuna's only running project, the massive bridge that was to connect the Wave directly to the larger continent and open up trade on a much larger scale. Apparently an international thug known as Gatou had terrorized the Wave into subservience, and now had fully taken into account the threat that the new bridge held on his occupation of the poor country.

Tazuna surged into action as the party stood within several feet of the gate and motioned at the guard to allow them in. The old man turned towards them, "Follow me to my home. There will be food and a place for rest there."

-

At Tazuna's home the squad discovered the old bridge builder had sired a daughter, Tsunami, who took their vests and offered to clean them. The woman was fairly young, in her late 20s at the most. Her hair was a common black and she was moderately attractive with a fairly good build. The shinobi remained respectful, and Sakura stayed silent and attempted to seem docile and non-assertive to allow the matron of the household to be the dominant female, just as she was taught by the Ninja Academy.

As they settled in to sleep until dinner time arrived, they also met Tazuna's grandson, Inari. Kurama's interest in his name seemed a little quirky to his teammates, considering he was somewhat satirical in his analyticity regarding most topics of conversation. Soon Kurama's interest in the child would be replaced with borderline aggression under a professionally tuned mask of dismissal.

It was during dinner that Inari's immature, depressive meanderings exploded and he fled from the scene at his pathetic display being challenged by the blond Naruto. Shortly the full story of the Wave's past few years unfolded before them, and Kakashi announced to his team as the tale reached the finale, "Officially, I'm raising the rank of this mission to A. As far as the money goes, it would not be a stretch for Konoha to allow an extension on the payment, so don't worry Tazuna. As it is, I can't allow the Wave to continue in such a away and tarnish the Leaf's good name. The time span stays one standard week, and you will all undergo some very important chakra development training in the next two or three days. Kurama, I need to speak with you in private before you head in to sleep. Good night, everyone. Thank you for the lovely dinner, Tsunami-san."

-

While Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura headed up to bed, Kurama exited the house and stood on the porch with Kakashi. They stood silent for a few moment, before Kakashi spoke, "I could give two shits about the state the Wave is in, Kurama. After the things I've seen and done, it wouldn't be much of a stretch for me to change the objective of this mission to some bullshit about protecting our national security and having this whole town ravaged and every single citizen put to death. As far as your teammates are concerned, they're still a little naive about this whole ninja business, but I can see the hate deep inside you, boy," Kakashi faced the shorter shinobi and continued, "I know you've seen great death, and I can smell the stench of blood and decay from your very skin. Frankly, I thought maybe you had just come from a violent country and were used to the presence of death in your life, but... no. Your prowess far encompasses what most shinobi your age are capable of.

"In this world, there are children younger than even Naruto that are more powerful than I. This isn't some game, Kurama. Your team has yet to comprehend this, but soon, sadly, they will understand. Anyway, Kurama, what's going to happen is this: You and I are going to kill Gatou, then we're going to go home and turn his head in for a bounty, and none of your team is going to know about it. We'll all take part of Zabuza's bounty, but Gatou's will remain between the two of us.

"I know you're having a little trouble with deciding whether or not a stable shinobi career is suitable versus the free reigning missing nin's lifestyle, so the only reason I'm handling it like this is to show you that you don't have to abide by all the set standards for what is supposed to be heralded as an upstanding citizen, because you're a soldier. Keeping the bounty between us doesn't hurt Konoha, as selling the Demon of the Mist's sword would, and it also ensures us some extra cash as well. I hope this should satisfy your rouge tendencies for the time being. Now tighten up, skipper. You're going to have to participate in these exercises as well. Just go with it. In the end, going over all these basic exercises will strengthen you, so don't bitch. I'm heading in. See you in the morning," after the lengthy monologue, the silver haired shinobi waved him off and vanished back inside. Kurama sat on the porch for a few minutes, then returned inside as well, heading into his team's designated room.

-

Naruto didn't get much sleep that night. He lie on his back for several hours, ignoring Kurama's arrival and just staring at the ceiling. What exactly was he here for? According to Sakura and Sasuke, Kurama hadn't even had formal training, yet he was without question the strongest Genin Naruto had ever seen. After years of being for the most part ignored, if not looked down upon and beaten, Naruto had ingrained in himself a steely determination and a stern, "FUCK YOU!" attitude as a means of coping with his on insignificance. Now that same horrible, agonizing worthless feeling swallowed him and had no plans of letting go, it seemed. After so many years of training and so many hardships, how did some kid just show up and completely shatter all his merits without any effort whatsoever? It wasn't fair that someone who hadn't seen and experienced a lifetime of abuse to be given such great power... It wasn't fair...

-

Kurama and Kakashi stalked through the harbor silently, Kakashi's arms reaching out with deadly intent towards the guards patrolling about the structure, the kunai he held extensions of his fatal will. They fell without a sound, a wordless scream passing through the night as steel carved a path through flesh, spilling blood in brilliant crimson spurts. The blades passes through each man's throat as if guided by an invisible force, so quiet and specter-like was the great Jounin's stealthy prowess. Kurama followed behind as a shadow, hiding the bodies away with small bursts of his youki that threw them over the edges of the dock, into shadowed corners and against walls, out of direct view.

The duo passed nearly thirty nameless men, now corpses, before they finally ran into some conscious opposition, in the form of a young shinobi that almost got the chance to shout an alarm as Kakashi's kunai glinted off the bright light given off by the many torches which lined the stairs which led into Gatou's base. The kunai, ever faithful of its master's will, split the boy's skull open like paper, and Kurama's demon power pulled the corpse through the air and chunked it into the sea, hundreds of yards away. Kakashi waved slightly, telling him to conserve his energy. Kurama nodded, though he was not the least bit winded.

Kurama and Kakashi wound their way up the long staircase, barely visible flickers as they sped along the steps, leaping into the alternate spaces not fully lit by the torches. The two guards stationed at the top were decapitated by Kurama's whip in a single flick of his wrist, and Kakashi's kunai flew through the air and cut the burning wicks of the torches which stood high above them mere seconds before the sight of the two necks spurting an almost comic amount of blood into the air. They let the corpses drop and followed ran across the small plateau which spread out before them, the barracks for Gatou's makeshift army more or less placed evenly along the dirt.

Kakashi paused and gave a small facial gesture which Kurama interpreted to be a smirk, then launched into a lengthy set of complicated seal patterns. At the end, the entire area lapsed into chaos. The barracks were crushed under an invisible fist, the ground opened up before them and bright, fluorescent flames shot forward and engulfed the soldiers. It was a messy, loud, overpowered display of power, and as such, the attention of every living being within 50 miles was aware that a "bomb" had gone off in the poor country of the Wave.

Gatou reared his head from the balcony which overlooked the plateau in his quarters and was met with a single kunai that pierced his throat and sent him flying back into his room and pinned him through the spine to the stone wall. Nearly one hundred yards away, Kakashi let his hitae ate back over his swirling crimson eye and gave Kurama another small smirk, "Child's play."

-

After a few more days spent in the Wave, making sure all the loose ends had been tied up and the Great Bridge completed, Team Seven began to leave. Naruto had apparently made quite an impression on Tazuna and all the other inhabitants of Wave, Kurama learned as he finally saw the great sign at the start of the Bridge they now crossed on their way back to Konohagakure. 'The Great Naruto Bridge...'

-

The journey back to Konohagakure was a languid, leisurely walk through the forests of Fire Country. Kurama chatted animatedly back and forth between Sakura and Naruto while Sasuke spoke quietly to Kakashi at the head of the pack. "So do you think you finally got that chakra walking thing down, Naruto?"

The blond grinned widely, "Yep! I've got it down so well now that I don't even have to think about, you know, like, forcing the chakra out and taking hold. I can just, like, naturally walk. If I run, sometimes I accidentally shoot myself off of the tree, but... I mean, it's only been a few days since I've learned it."

Sakura smiled slightly, "Yeah, you've gotten way better at it, Naruto. Of course, it's all thanks to me, but still. Nice job!"

Naruto's smile brightened considerably, and he started rambling off about the brilliant explosion that had engulfed Gatou's fortress. Kakashi and Kurama had chalked it off to Gatou having an target on his head, which he no doubt had, and gave the excuse of their being gone that night to investigate it. Nobody questioned it.

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(A/N): Yeah, several months since I posted the last chapter, sorry. I'm a lazy shit. My bad. I actually had most of this written but I just never got around to finishing it out, and I sorta cut some corners just to get it done. I'm still interested in finishing this out, it's just that I don't have a lot of time to work on this stuff anymore. Between school, band practice (I have an Experimental Metal band, not the school band), weight training, work, and just fucking around when I have free time with friends, it's hard to go, "Yeah, I think I'll sit at my computer for three hours and write that chapter, then masturbate or something instead of going out to so and so's house and getting shit faced. Yeah. Nice."

Any who, I'll try and get some more updates later on. I hope you're not pissed at the shitty quality of this chapter. Peace.

- No, not going to use his sword.

- Good to be the author and have unquestionable control over the characters and their motives, thoughts and actions.

Vocabulary:

Uh... I don't think there's anything unfamiliar.

STATS:

Words: 8543 (Story)

Words: 8974 (All)


	5. Chapter 4

A/N: I'd been adding little tid bits to this chapter ever since I last posted, and its been nearly ten months since I've updated this story. Time really flies... Anyway, I'd just about tossed this in the garbage and pretty much forgotten about it until I was trying to figure out the lyrics to 'The Lotus Eater' by Opeth, and upon reading them (?id=1342875) I was all of a sudden stricken by some serious motivation. As such, the chapter itself deals mostly with Naruto's final acceptance of the true meaning of being a shinobi.

So, sorry for the wait, though from the number of hits/reviews not too many folks seem to care at this point (most likely due to my own incredibly long time away from updating), but here is Chapter Four: The Lotus Eater. R&R, please.

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A Tale of Two Beasts – Harmony and Chaos

Chapter Four: The Lotus Eater

The return to Konohagakure was met with little fanfare. No rogue ninja burst into their path to apprehend them, nobody stepped on a rusted, discarded shuriken or nail or anything. No rabid animals attacked them. Yes, something was amiss, and Kakashi was determined to get to the bottom of it. The odds of having a return trip with little mishap was rare, but a perfectly BORING trip back, made in record time? Nearly unheard of. Hatake Kakashi glanced to his left at Sasuke, then to his right, at Naruto, then to the south, at Sakura. Finally, his eyes drifted towards the solitary, red headed figure to the north, about twenty yards farther than Kakashi usually had a point guard stationed.

Hm, so maybe Kurama was using some of his talents with plants, perhaps exuding some sort of plant-y aura, to ward away evil karma demons? Kakashi grinned beneath his mask, and let his eyes (or eye, depending on your viewpoint, I suppose) curve into a pleased smile. Yes, the great Kakashi's instincts told him to place the young shinobi at point soon after they left, and his instincts served him well. Kakashi – 1, Evil Karma Demons – 0. Score!

-

They entered Konoha territory several hours after Kakashi's victory over the evil karma demons that forever seemed haunt him. "Team, I'll deliver the report back to Hokage-sama. I want all of you to get a little rest and take tomorrow off. But after tomorrow expect a bright and early return to training. We're going to be kicking up the pace by quite a margin. Kurama, stay just a moment. I need you to come with me for a second. The rest of you, dismissed."

Naruto and Sasuke both gave a small look to each other, then to the retreating figures of Kurama and Kakashi before they finally turned and followed the skipping figure of Sakura towards the city. Naruto's eyes actually followed the sculpted form of her ass, but just the same it served as a guide.

-

Night fell on Konohagakure swiftly, cloaking the city in its deathly quiet embrace. From the mile high treetops surrounding the great village a spectator took in the spectacle of the sun setting. Ebony hair fluttered lightly, the strands reaching all of the six feet from head to toe, nearly dragging onto the ground. The only skin exposed was the single strip of cloth ripped from the figure's old fashioned ninja helm, which left his eyes and the narrow bit of skin between and around the orbs free to the caress of the breeze.

In stark contrast to its state of dress, the figure's eyes remained a milky white constant amidst the inky darkness settling over Fire Country. Faint pupils consisted of an off white circle surrounded by what appeared to be a ragged, broken blood vessel, a black strand of something that faintly wiggled every few seconds, like a worm.

There was a whisper. Floating, drifting, swelling and shrinking with the winds that carried it. Far below the branch from which the figure was standing a young blond boy jolted up in his bed, screaming. He could have sworn he heard something dreadful. Another whisper, and a subsequent scream.

"You'll rot in an unmarked grave, boy."

-

The sun rose all too slowly for Uzumaki Naruto, who sat rigid on the floor in a crouched position, eyes bleeding red and viewing all of his bedroom with a passive, never wavering stare. His hands grasped kunai so tightly the knuckles on his hands were white, and beginning to swell and crimson with the extended strain.

There was a crack, and Naruto lurched forward, his arms flinging the two blades as hard and as swiftly as possible through the open doorway in the direction of the opening to his home. Flooding his senses with chakra, he further accelerated the blades, shoving them through the wood. There was a sharp 'clang!' of metal on metal, and then the subtle pitter patter of unhurried footsteps. Naruto moved backwards and sat down on the side of his bed with a sort of dazed look, though his hands now clenched the hilt of an old, raggedy kitchen knife.

Kurama peered through the doorway and then glanced back at the entrance he'd just came through, appraising, "Good stuff..." Kurama turned back towards the blond ninja and let out a little 'tsk, tsk, tsk' at his appearance, "Damn, you look horrible. Bad night?"

Naruto slowly set the knife down on his bare mattress having discarded his sheets and the thin comforter he had to the other side of the bed sometime during his hours of tossing and turning, "You could, uh, say that, I guess. I kept getting this eerie feeling, man. I think something really bad is going to happen..."

Kurama nodded faintly, "It is possible. I've read that with the spiritual and mental awareness that most decent ninja have attained that their natural intuition is often extremely acute. It's totally possible..." the crimson haired shinobi muttered, trying not to sound like a know-it-all. He approached Naruto somewhat warily, though exposed no overt hesitation, and patted him on the shoulder, "Look, Naruto. Raw fact is that... probably less than a hundred feet from here, there was civilian mugging or killing or raping or something and you picked up on it. Frankly, since I was little and my body began adapting to the increased chakra stores in my body I've been picking up on all sorts of things, but for the most part, I haven't had anything too awful happen. In my opinion, it's probably best to keep an eye out, but don't obsess over this, alright? After all, while the sense is useful in certain situations, like when someone's killing intent isn't masked, or so you can sense hostiles in the surrounding area... But for now, just get up and take a shower. I'm going to show you a new exercise that you'll probably love."

At the prospect of learning something new Naruto perked up somewhat and stood up, still a little sluggish. The young shinobi stretched his arms above his head, clasping them together at the wrist and giving out a loud yawn. "Probably?"

-

"Seventy...! Seventy-one...! Seventy-two...!" the pattern continued, Naruto's gasping chant never ceasing for more than a second. The blond shinobi was lying face down in the dirt of one of the Genin training grounds, shirtless with his orange pant legs rolled to the knee and his sandals removed, thrown near to where his shirt and jacket lay. Naruto performed push ups in the flawless position all ninja were taught in their youth. Basic exercises could not be stressed enough as the fundamental physical conditioning pillar and poor form just wouldn't do.

But push ups were boring. Kurama had introduced the concept of funneling chakra through the palms and never actually touching the ground. At first Naruto had completed the first hundred without even ceasing his chakra flow, and was ready to spring up and gloat about the ease of the exercise, when he noticed Kurama next to him had merely started the count over at one, and was using an interesting technique. As soon as his hands nearly touched the earth, he would blast enough chakra to force himself back into the air, then cut the flow.

Now, in his fifth set, on his five hundred and seventy-third push up, Naruto knew that it was utterly impossible to do more than about two hundred without ceasing flow, though the bursting action was extremely strenuous. Panting, with his entire body turned crimson by the unceasing activity which by now had turned his arms, shoulders, and stomach into jelly. Kurama continued next to him, merely twenty push ups ahead of him, but the conservation of his chakra in the beginning seemed to be assisting him greatly, as while he was flushed and sweating, his breath was calm and even.

Somewhere around seven hundred Naruto's body was on the verge of collapsing, and each repetition took nearly five whole seconds. Kurama had ceased at seven hundred and fifty, and sat Indian-style next to the gasping, panting ninja. When Naruto finally finished he collapsed into the mud below him, his sweating so profuse that it had created a puddle beneath him. Kurama stood, somewhat shakily, and walked towards the conveniently placed water fountains, freeing two cups from the dispenser on the side and filling them. He took a sip of one and returned to the still panting Naruto.

"Stop breathing like that. You're going to pass out. Here, turn over and when you feel comfortable sit up and take a swallow of water," Kurama lectured, his own breathing slow and steady, and his flushed appearance nearly forgotten.

Naruto followed his instruction and did as such, finally taking a long swallow of water once his breathing slowed enough, "That's some pretty tough shit..."

Kurama nodded and took a swallow from his own cup. The crimson haired shinobi finished it off and walked over to the fountain and began refilling his cup. He took another sip after filling it to the brim, and then laughed, "Wait until we start on squats."

-

Night had taken a firm hold on Konohagakure only an hour previous, and Naruto's exuberant amount of stamina hadn't allowed him to fall asleep as he wanted. Instead he sat in his study, reading one of his newly acquired technique books. Reaching the end of the page he folded it inwards and closed the manual. He stood and then looked into the toilet with a grimace before cleaning up and flushing. Naruto left the book on the small table next to the toilet where he normally kept his dirty magazines and joke books and washed his hands, pondering on the best methods for keeping up with Kurama.

Naruto's pursuits of staying on even ground, or actually surpassing Sasuke were now pretty much forgotten. He had relinquished much of his latent jealousy of the other boy knowing how much Sasuke also envied the star pupil of Hatake Kakashi and while both still seemed to share equal enmity of each other, they also appraised the prodigy with comprehensive and calculating glances. Neither had confessed to their equal fear of the boy, but both had suppressed hunches that the other felt as such many times. Naruto liked Kurama, a lot. He was a great guy... but there was just too much damn power and _wisdom_ in that lanky frame to not feel somewhat scared of him.

And of course the seal on Naruto's stomach had been acting up again, and the patterns that the trouble appeared also assisted in the uneasiness that which Naruto held Kurama. Frequent cramps and eerie feelings of a nearby threat, feelings of being watched, all present usually in Kurama's presence. Often it was barely noticeable, but some times there was just no ignoring it. And the rage that always swirled below the surface of his mind had been coming to bear at even greater levels since his feelings of fear and envy had also been aroused.

There was a thump. Something had slammed into the side of his building with enough force to be heard up above the ground floor. Naruto pulled on a pair of his orange pants and felt that his kunai were attached to the belt. He opened the bathroom door and tread over through the living room/kitchen/dining area to the only somewhat clear window and glanced down. The murky piece of glass revealed a trio or possibly a quartet of figures below, but the darkness served to complement the questionable transparency of the window and as such the view was all but undecipherable. Naruto squinted and at still being unable to view the figures and their activities clearly he infused small amounts of chakra into his eyes. They began to burn, unused to the energy's stimulation in that area, but the chakra served its intended purpose and he was able to clear the murky view.

As Naruto beheld the two men raping the what appeared to be a young woman and a third standing to the side, he rushed to the door, not bothering to try and open the barred window and damage his wall. As soon as he stepped onto the walkway he jumped over the railing and whilst flying in the direction of the thugs and their victim his chakra infused eyes flared a bright blue, and to the three who were busy having their way with the young woman's unconscious body all they could see was two floating azure orbs before Naruto released six of his kunai from the pouch at his hip in an instant. Three pairs of eyes were pierced, and two of the men dropped to the ground, dead. The other wasn't so lucky. Clutching his skull, the man who had been busy racking the body of the woman with violent stabs into her genitals pulled out of her and nearly fell onto his back in a rush to get away from the direction of whatever had thrown the weapons.

Naruto gave a small snort and fell next to the scrambling man, kicking him in the side of the face. There was a loud crack and the body fell still, the man's head cocked to an odd angle. Ignoring the corpse Naruto turned to face the woman whom was obviously unconscious, at least if you took into consideration the closed eyes and unresponsiveness of her body in accordance with having just been raped. As he looked her over he reached down and felt for her pulse. Nothing. His chakra infused eyes burned extremely bad from having been charged for so long a time with such an abundance of chakra, but his need to view details in the dark forced him to push a little more. Tears fell as the eyes attempted to soothe themselves. Steam rose.

From what he could discern from the wall, when she'd been shoved into the wall her head had struck it. Blood splatter and a bit of brains and skull fragments decorated the side of the building. The back of her head was caved in. Naruto felt sharp pins and needles begin to pierce into the back of his eyes and deactivated his night vision. The sensation of having his vision taken away was swift and left him nearly disoriented, but his body reacted and he sprinted into the direction of the nearest guard output which all shinobi were required to know the locations of.

The lights given off by the interior through the window enabled him to see decently, and he could make out the guard, what looked to be an older Chuunin, facing him. Naruto saluted, "Sir, Genin Uzumaki Naruto, I've just stopped three men in the process of raping a young civilian woman. All of them are dead, sir." The shock of the situation never reached him, his mind was taken over by the training. Protocol prevailed over thought.

The Chuunin was good at what he did, and offered no hostilities at the Genin's name. He nodded and glanced around, "The woman's status?"

"Dead, sir."

In the middle of jotting down notes the Chuunin paused, "Excuse me?"

Naruto kept his salute having not been told to do otherwise, "Her attackers smashed her head into the wall, and from the look of things killed her instead of rendering her unconscious."

"You can relax, son. Listen to me, I need to tell me the location of the scene and then return to your home. Come to the police headquarters tomorrow around noon and we'll do what needs to be done to make sure you're not held liable to anything."

Naruto nodded and relaxed then recited his address, "Sir, I live upstairs at the same location. I heard what I'm assuming to be her skull connect to the building's wall. If there is any assistance required-"

"None will be required, you've done just as you've been trained to. Don't break the habit, now go home. It's getting late."

Naruto nodded and saluted again, "Yes sir, thank you, sir," and departed. It was only when he got home and was in the process of taking a second shower to remove the blood that had splattered him upon kicking the man's head that what had just happened actually struck him. He looked down at his body, down at the bloody water, then at his shaking hands. He collapsed under the cold spray of the shower, the momentum causing him to slip forward and bash his hand on the rusty handle, cutting off the flow.

-

The morning came slowly, and Naruto awoke feeling as if he had just been unfrozen. He grasped the edge of the tub and pulled himself out and onto the hard floor of his bathroom. He lay there for a few moments, struggling to piece together where he was and what was happening. His head was pounding, and his upper body felt as if the muscles in his arms, chest, and back had been ran through a blender and poured back into his body.

The memories came slowly, and fragmented. Images in a strange vision, a world colored in blue. He'd killed someone. The revelation came in a rush: a man viciously fucking a cooling corpse, the same man's neck breaking from a swift kick to the face which turned his entire head around backwards and sprayed Naruto with blood, the same man whom had just taken the life of an innocent civilian woman, the same man who now burned in hell with the other two men Naruto had ruthlessly killed by sending kunai through the depths of their eyes into the brain.

Naruto shakily sat up, and with the aid of the tub was able to use his ruined muscles to pull himself up. The last bit of activity during the night had most likely served to further tear his already beaten muscles. He wobbled out of the bathroom into his living area and headed towards his bedroom, each step taking a momentous effort. He sought to see what time it was from the clock mounted above his small television, but his vision was blurry to an insane degree, and his eyes felt aflame. It must have had something to do with the memories of the previous night being burned into his mind in the strange blue light.

Naruto made it into his bedroom and sat down onto his carefully made bed and had the strange though of how he was beginning to have neater tendencies. A small glance to the outside of his room revealed a vision, albeit blurry, of a clean living room, bereft of the tiniest hint of trash. Naruto lay back onto his thin comforter and pulled the unused portion of his covers on the other side of the bed to cover his naked body. He fell asleep as soon as he had comfortably fixed his head into the pillows.

-

Naruto awoke at the crack of noon and instantly stood to dress. His vision was superbly clear now after another few hours of rest. There was a tingling in the his retinas, even. But the pleasant sensation of a reinvigorated body didn't stop the knowledge that he was late for something putting him in an odd state of mind, and through his rushed dressing he had no thoughts other than what the process of dressing. He slipped on his shoes and exited, not bothering to lock the door. Things had changed. No one would enter his home in the pursuit of mischief.

He walked towards the center of town, without really knowing where he was going. He let his feet send him to the correct destination. It took about ten minutes of steady walking, but eventually he looked up once there was something in his path and he stared into the eyes of a young man seated behind a desk. Naruto simply stared at him, unsure of why he was here.

The man grimaced uncertainly and offered, "Can I help you, young man?"

The blond shinobi though for a second and kept staring at him, "I'm not sure. I'm supposed to be here for some reason. I... can't remember why, thou-" Midway through the sentence Naruto realized it had something to do with the previous night, "Oh, I'm supposed to see if I need to offer any assistance with the murders last night in the lower city apartment district. I talked to someone about it last night, maybe a Chuunin?."

The man at the desk looked down at his list of memos one of the secretaries had handed to him at the start of the day, and skimmed through the small batch of sticky notes plastered to the bottom right of the desk and finally looked back up into Naruto's eyes with a small smile, "Afraid you're not needed anymore, son. Apparently forensic evidence patched this all up last night. Thank you for coming down as asked, though."

Naruto nodded solemnly and turned to walk away, exiting the building and turning onto the main road through the village. He didn't get far down the road in the direction of the town square before his hair stood on end, and he followed the sensation towards where it directed him. Nearly forty or so yards away there was Konohamaru and his little group of friends playing. Running backwards away from his two friends, Konohamaru missed the large figure in black standing behind him.

As Naruto approached slowly, his senses telling him something eerie was near, Konohamaru ran full speed into the young man. The man's hand flew down and snatched up Konohamaru by the collar, the force nearly snapping his little neck and causing his teeth to _click_ together. The brute seemed to not be bothered by the mild heat of the village, even though he wore all black clothing, and it only seemed to make his visage all the more ferocious to the young boy who looked up into his captor's face. "What in the fuck do you think you're doing, you little shit? Watch where you're fucking going! You could have broken my leg or something. How would that look, one of Konoha's little shit bag kids wounding a visiting ninja? I ort to snap one of your little arms, punk!"

Naruto felt twinge of anger and felt his chakra pools open fully and let the flow expand around him until it would most likely be visible to the naked eye of those even slightly sensitive. Approaching from the side, Naruto's eyes shot to the blond kunoichi that stood nearby with a slightly disapproving look in her eyes, but who obviously didn't care all too much. "I'd suggest putting him down." There was a quiet rage building up in Naruto, one that filled him with a lust for blood and put a distinct edge to his voice, as if his throat were leaking out energy. Naruto took another step forward and felt his eyes burn again, and his vision sharpened.

The ebony clad ninja looked down at the boy for a second, and then towards Naruto and grinned, "Just what the hell are you going to do about it, mother fucker?" he asked, and then moved as if to do something to Konohamaru in spite of the suggestion.

"Kankuro. Put. Him. Down."

Naruto's eyes didn't follow the voice, though his ears told him where the sound had come from. The large tree just behind them. There was power in the voice. Naruto did, however, see the tremors that came to Kankuro's body as he hurriedly did as told by whomever had uttered the command. The blond kunoichi also shivered and came forward as if to shield Kankuro, "Come on, Kankuro, these Leaf shinobi aren't worth bothering with anyway."

The stoic voice from the tree came again, "I'd think otherwise of the statement, siblings. Now follow me to our board. I'm sick of looking at this place." Naruto, finally sensing the situation was disarmed, turned towards the voice and viewed the red hair boy who stood upside down on one of the branches, observing. His hair was short, and there were black markings around his eyes. Most striking was the kanji tattoo on his forehead, the character for 'Love', and the giant gourd strapped to his back. "Leaf nin, please forgive my brother for behaving like trash." The boy sent a fearsome glare towards his brother who had began to walk towards the boy.

Kankuro winced and ceased moving until the red haired youth looked away, "I'm sorry, Gaara. I wasn't thinking."

The blond kunoichi joined her sibling and muttered, "No shit. It's a good thing you stopped though. You could have jeopardized our being entered into the exams." At this Kankuro winced sharply again and seemed to shrink. When Gaara teleported down to the ground and began walking in the direction of the main town square both Kankuro and the blond girl began to follow him.

"Hey, what exactly are you doing here in Konohagakure?" asked Naruto, his swelling chakra making his voice project without yelling.

Gaara paused and turned to face him and then looked sharply at the blond who apparently got the message. She turned and looked to Naruto, "We are from Sunagakure. We're here for the Chuunin Exams. I'm Temari," she said, and pointed to Kankuro, "that's Kankuro," and she then nodded her head towards Gaara who was examining the ground, "and that's Gaara. I'm sure we'll be seeing more of each other soon." She smiled slightly, a smile that attempted to both enhance and hide her dangerous qualities.

Naruto nodded and didn't provide a name or any thanks. He looked away from her and went towards Konohamaru to make sure he was okay. Temari glared at him and turned back towards Gaara who had started walking again. They turned down another street and began heading towards the hotel they were staying in. Temari hissed, "What a little asshole. Somebody ought to beat his ass."

Gaara gave a small chuckle, nearly a grunt in its gruffness, "It wouldn't come from Kankuro, that's for sure. I doubt you two sensed it, but that one is unstable. That and his chakra output in a resting state is nearly thrice yours combined. Now stop your bitching, Temari. I would enjoy silencing you, but I'm sure you possess the ability to cease talking of your own accord."

Kankuro gave Temari a small questioning look, which Temari returned before saying, "Yes, Gaara." The two siblings continued following their younger brother, both wondering over the same subject, the boy they'd just encountered. If his chakra was so great he must obviously be a large threat... but for Gaara to have spoken so much on him there was something else that Gaara must have sensed. Something... unnatural.

-

Sasuke sat on the edge of the roof atop the main Uchiha household. Blank eyes vacantly gazed over the empty subdivision and towards the brilliantly lit city. It was almost sunset. He had a lot of errands to do today, but he'd awoken early and taken a shower, gotten dressed, and then on a whim had climbed out his window and onto the roof. He'd sat here all day, just thinking. There were images passing through his mind, sounds and smells that he often found himself in a quandary about. To erase them would ease his conscious tremendously, but the same thing that would bring him peace would put him on the same level as his graduating class. With much of his innocence shattered he was capable of putting himself past the comforts of laziness and was attempting to convert himself to thrive off of pain.

The attempt was working, however slowly. Sasuke broke his gaze and turned to look down at his hands. Calloused, scarred, strong. His palms clenched and his fingers turned inwards into fists. There was a small spark of anger in him, but the placid calm that had held him captive all day reverted the emotion into a sigh. Sasuke bent forward and pushed himself up. Standing atop the roof he thought briefly to throw himself over, but merely chuckled. At most he'd sprain his ankle or get a few bruises. At most. Anger again twisted into his mind at his suicidal thoughts. Sasuke took a kunai from his pouch and stabbed into the top of his left hand. He took it out and sent the kunai flying into the woods, where there was the small sound of it _thunk_ing into a tree.

Sasuke ignored the pouring blood for a moment as his thoughts turned to his utter hatred of suicide and of weakness. Chakra gradually pooled into the wound and clotted it without a thought. The Uchiha nin turned to look at the slightly glowing wound and his eyes widened.

-

There weren't many things that excited Haruno Sakura. Flowers made her think of her ex best friend and current rival Ino. Training reminded her of her inferior strength. Money wasn't really high on her priority list as her family had always been more than comfortable, her civilian father's high paying job within the city and her mother's dutiful housekeeping had given her both an extravagantly decorated home and all the comforts and things she could ever want.

But one thing always got her going. The secret thought that she would never, EVER tell to anyone. The thoughts that she attempted to keep even God out of.

The very person she despised brutally dominating her body in her parent's bed.

With a moan Sakura's nimble fingers brought her to an incredible release. He orgasm had her breaking out into shivers and had her face flushed pink. Her eyes closed tightly as she rode out the wave of pleasure racking her body. Her thin, supple hips rocked against her hand which had settled away from her burning clit and was slowly sliding to keep the sensations for as long as possible. With a sigh Sakura brought her dripping hand to her face and began to remove her juices from each digit with her tongue.

Haruno Sakura let out another small moan and then sat up shakily, launching into a slow, satisfying stretch. Her eyes drifted from her sweat and cum soaked bed towards the window, in the direction of the nearly abandoned Uchiha Compound which was faintly visible in the moonlight, and guilt splintered into her thought process, along with the glowing visage of a certain blond genin, and the brooding scene of Sasuke learning of her 'betrayal.' She frowned and jumped off her bead, furrowing her brow at the image of her soaking wet comforter. She chuckled, attempting to alleviate the guilt sensations she felt by thinking of something else.

But as she carried the comforter to the washing room, the musky scent which followed her only shoved the fact that she was desperately attracted to Naruto back into her face. With a heavy heart she set about the task of cleaning the cover. For the rest of the night she couldn't get the their faces out of her mind. Sleep never came for the pink haired girl.

-

Naruto had slept well that night. His seal had been acting up after his encounter with the mysterious ninja from Sunagakure, but the strain of attempting to ignore it had apparently left him more exhausted than he'd thought. Without breaking his train of thought

The eerie feeling he'd gotten from the ninja still had not left him. Also, there hadn't been anything nearly as malevolent as the vibes he picked up from the Gaara boy since he had watched Kakashi and Kurama battle with the Demon of the Mist, Zabuza. But where Zabuza had seemed focused on exuding his killing intent to the party of Konoha ninja, Gaara's mere presence hinted of nearly untold amounts of killing intent, and his gut feeling told Naruto it had been checked. With passive killing intent of such a great amount, it left Naruto somewhat nauseous thinking of how a focused burst of it could affect his enemies.

The blond shinobi blocked out the worry that started leaking into his psyche and flushed it out with a quick burst of chakra. His skin prickled and shivered pleasantly. Naruto's eyes shifted towards the digital alarm clock at his bed side which sat on the rickety end table he'd stealthily pulled from one of the nearby dumpsters at Christmas the year before. Nothing really wrong with it. A severe cleaning had taken it from a piece of shit to a respectable looking piece of furniture. Naruto felt a small sparkle of pride that he'd done so well in the past few weeks for himself.

The bright red digits on the clock read 5:43. According to the calendar he'd swiped from one of the department stores in town today he was to meet Kakashi and the rest of his team in front of the Hokage Tower around ten. Plenty of time to get a head start on his new training regimen that had been brewing under his thoughts ever since Kurama had got him doing chakra push ups shortly after they had all gotten back Konohagakure from the mission.

Firstly, he started off stretching, and by 6:00 had lapsed into concentrated chakra push ups, of which he did as many as he could as fast as he could perform them for about ten minutes. Following these he stretched out his shoulders and jogged in place, wondering exactly how Kurama would have instructed him to do squats in such a manner. Just jumping with chakra, maybe? Naruto did as such, ceasing his jogging and squatting down, channeling his chakra into his legs and feet. He performed the exercise and used his chakra to shoot into the air, slamming his head into the ceiling and actually cracking the the roof of the room. He fell and landed in a heap at the foot of his bed where he'd been doing the exercises.

Naruto grasped his pounding head, rubbing his sweaty hair and the goose egg that was already swelling at the top of his scalp. Pulling his hand away he determined it wasn't bleeding. He sighed, blocking out the pain, "Well, I think that's enough for today. At least I worked up a sweat..." Naruto murmured, and stood, shaking his head and in doing so dousing his everything around him in sweat. He looked around and shrugged, then walked to the bathroom to take a shower.

-

The rest of the team was already there upon Naruto's arrival. Kurama sat off to the side of the road on a bench, looking deep in thought. Sasuke was on the other side of the road, nursing today's newspaper. Sakura was staring daggers at the large clock which was displayed on the side of the bank. She glanced over towards Naruto and flicked a little grin at him, a grin which threatened Naruto to give her a smart alleck comment, "Guess who's nearly two hours late?"

Naruto looked over at the clock, confirming the time, "Well, it's Kakashi. Of course he's late. Why the hell did you bother to get here so early? You're supposed to be the brains, Sakura... well, you and Kurama, but still. I've already figured out if Kakashi says ten, he means lunch."

Sasuke glanced over at his newspaper, a little surprised that Naruto wasn't trying to win brownie points by siding with her and following along, but merely looked back down, attempting to feign disinterest. Across the street Kurama merely smiled as he looked over at them. Sakura looked mortified Naruto had dared to answer her like he did, and then the anger switch flipped, and she began to march over to him. Naruto flicked his hand at her and slammed a huge wave of chakra into her, causing her to nearly fly backwards into a group of civilian bankers who were trying to cross the street and enter the bank. Naruto winked at Kurama when he saw the crimson haired boy smiling at him.

Kurama gave him a little smirk in return. 'Naruto got the exercise.'

"I'm not the in mood for it, Sakura. I think it's about time we stopped this whole charade thing you've got going on and accept the fact that I'm improving," said Naruto, taking a deep breath afterwards, preparing to say something that felt both as if he was treating her very badly and also like it was lifting a huge weight off his chest, "I'm not the weakling anymore. We're a team and you're not going to treat me like a punching bag for every time you feel I've fucked you over or something. I've never done anything to hurt you, and god dammit, you're not going to treat me like shit anymore!"

Sakura looked up at him from her position in the dirt, and her eyes teared up. She stood and brushed the dust from her outfit and walked over to Kurama's bench, where she sat down and stayed silent. Naruto went to Sasuke's side of the street and joined his teammate in waiting for their teacher.

Not ten silent minutes later the Jounin appeared walking at a leisurely pace. He stood in the center between the two benches. His only visible eye first examined Kurama and Sakura. Kurama looked nearly asleep, and Sakura looked on the verge of tears. His eye then traveled over to Sasuke and Naruto. Sasuke was holding his paper out so that Naruto could read along side him on one particularly interesting article. He scratched at his head and frowned in confusion, "Well, I didn't really expect silence at arriving here two hours late, but whatever."

Kakashi smiled, "I've got good news! I've enlisted Team Seven in the Chuunin Exams about to be held here, starting on Monday! Well, actually, I need you all to agree to perform in the exam, so... how about it?" It only took a few second for the words to register with the team, and everyone but Sakura raised her hand. At Sasuke's look which practically pleaded with her, she sighed and raised hers as well.

Kakashi beamed, "Right, well, it's pretty exciting, huh? Now, look, we've only got two weeks until the exam starts. The first teams participating have already began arriving, trying to put in a few weeks training in a new environment and all that. We've got home field advantage, and I've also got an extensive training regimen for all of you."

He pointed to Kurama, "Well, not you, actually. I'm stilling working on something." He then pointed to Sakura, who looked up with still moist eyes, "You, crybaby, are going to be training with a good friend of mine, Maito Gai, the greatest taijutsu master in the land of Konoha, and probably one of the best in the world. Your chakra control is impeccable, but you need some serious work in the physical end of the deal. The training will not only make you stronger and faster and improve your endurance, it will increase your chakra stores, so... win/win. Well, nearly all training is win/win, but you really need this kind, so even more so.

"Sasuke, I've got some stuff I'd like to personally show you, so for the next two weeks you're going on a little camping trip with me. As for you, Naruto, I've hired one of the top tutors in Konohagakure. You and Sakura can begin training today, actually. Sasuke, I need you to go prepare for the trip and I'll come get you first thing in the morning. Be ready by six. Seriously."

Kakashi grinned and looked over at Kurama, "You, my red headed friend, come with me. Sakura, you can go meet Gai and his team around Practice Field 3. Naruto, head over to the Academy and Ebisu will be waiting for you in the lobby. Dismissed!"

Kurama looked a little puzzled but stood and followed the shinobi towards the Hokage Tower. He started to make conversation, "So, what exactly have you go planned for me, sensei?"

Kakashi smiled. A sick, perverse and somewhat cruel smile, "If all goes as planned, I'm going to see you trained by one of the most depraved Jounin in Konohagakure history. Mitarashi Anko."

Kurama's casual smile turned a little serious, "What exactly are you unsure of whether or not she'll train me?"

Kakashi chuckled, "It's not really up to me. I made the proposal and asked if she would consider possibly tutoring a promising genin, and she replied that it depended on the shinobi in question. Simple speaking, you've gotta pass a test. I don't know what, but it'll probably be something painful and hard. Just don't die. Anyway, you'll find her in the Jounin Sparring Field. Be careful."

Kurama stopped following his sensei and nodded, watching the tall figure fade into the crowd. He looked off into the direction of the Hokage Monument and towards the fields beyond it. He marched, a little uncertain of the direction his training was headed.

-

The woman was devastatingly attractive. That was the first thing Kurama noticed about her. He'd never seen a human woman as particularly interesting ever before. They were prey. Most were weak on a ridiculous scale. All overly self obsessed with delusions of grandeur. Just the fact that he admired her on an equal level attested to her strength.

She was about 5'7", wearing a white coat that barely hid a fabulous body that was all but nearly nude. Her matching skirt was fitted with an interior of armored scales which peaked out the bottom, and her legs and arms both were equipped with steel plates that slightly fitted over the ankles to her combat boots. "So," she sneered, both eyes staring daggers into Kurama's own green orbs, "you're Kakashi's brat he praises so highly. You look like every other snot nosed little shit running around Konohagakure thinking so much of themselves. Let's see... If you can draw blood on me using only taijutsu, I'll train you. How about that?"

Kurama stood silent for a second, considering. His eyes traveled over her form in another little assessment, noting the sides of her large breasts were pretty much haning out the sides of her coat. Did he really need to go through this? He'd pretty much proven he could defeat a Jounin... with weapons, at least. Could she actually make him even deadlier? His eyes glazed over with a sheen of youki, sparking his eyes crimson. Battle fever had his blood pouring through his veins and his heart racing. "Sounds fine. Let's go."

Kurama felt his muscles tense up, and he forced his body to go limp, though his biceps and his thighs were swelling in preparation to battle. He let his fingernails actually extend a little, and their edges sharpen. He shuffled forward-

The woman's steel leg guard struck him in the side of the face, and he was sent reeling into the dirt. He hadn't even seen her move. His eyes flickered green for a second and as he flipped to his feet he felt his jaw might be broken, and his head was pounding. 'Holy shit...' There was a pulsing wave of killing intent bludgeoning him from all sides, even from below.

His eyes widened, and his jumped back, narrowly avoiding Anko's speeding form which erupted from the ground where he'd been not a second earlier. She stopped in mid air and changed direction, spinning like a top with her arms crossed and her guards poised to batter him. Chakra, reiki and youki all flooded into his arms, and with a harsh thrust of his forearm he deflected her attack, sending her spinning away.

Anko crashed into the dirt and slid a good fifty feet. Kurama felt his hand throb from the contact, and prepared to attack her again. Just as he did so, the figure laying in the dirt burst into smoke. 'Clone...?'

Anko grabbed him around the neck and put her legs around his, as well as driving her free arm's elbow deep into his side. Kurama struggled to escape the choke hold she was putting him in, and as a last resort dislocated his shoulders with a savage 'pop', worming his arms around her body and grabbing her by the hips. He felt his blood boil at having been beaten up to this point and chunked her as hard as he could. This served to break her hold on him and send her slamming into the dirt. This time she wasn't a clone, and Kurama didn't give her the chance to counterattack.

He was on her in an instant, pummeling her face with a series of ferocious punches. He paused for an instant to send both knees into her chest, and then grab the back of her head and pull it towards his elbow. He struck her in the face once, twice, and then a third and final time before letting her head drop into the dirt. The Jounin's eyes opened and she smiled through a mask of blood, spitting it out of her mouth. She put a hand on his shoulder.

Kurama was stricken by a sudden burst of electricity that surged through his veins and dispelled all the strength given to him by his battle fever. He was blown back by the force of the electricity. Anko stood up, and assessed his twitching form, before cutting the flow of lightning off, "You know what, I've been called on to teach many a prodigy. Most of them were just some hard assed little clan brat with a little bloodline technique, or maybe they were a little faster or stronger than their peers. You're the first to ever actually complete the test..."

Anko watched Kurama stand, shakily, and smirk at her. "Wipe that fucking smirk off your face, meat. This damage you inflicted is superficial, at best. You'll be limping around for hours." Anko began walking towards him, a blue glow emitting from her face, where chakra mended the wounds that Kurama had just dealt. As she stood in front of him, her face flawless again, she 'tsked' at his disheveled appearance. "Honestly, you could have done better. You're stronger than me, physically. You've got more chakra. You came into this fight over confident. Had this been serious, you would be dead. Now I have two weeks to turn you into a shinobi. Let's get to work." She grinned evilly.

"I want two hundred laps around the field perimeter, non stop! Move!"

-

Across town, while Kurama was beginning a quick descent into hell, Naruto was just approaching the Ninja Academy where his own tutor awaited. He'd heard of this Ebisu guy before, but mainly just in small talk between academy students and their parents. Apparently he was a pretty highly desired private tutor, so while Naruto would have greatly preferred Kakashi teach him, he wasn't feeling too shafted by the deal.

Konohamaru was Ebisu's student, if Naruto's memory served him correctly. Naruto frowned. Though he really liked the young boy, as annoying as he may be, he wasn't exactly that good of a ninja. Of course the kid wasn't even close to a Genin level yet, he was just barely above average for those in his age group. But then again, above average was still above average, and at that level the difference must have been pretty dramatic. 'I couldn't even produce a decent Bushin just a few months ago... he can already do so...' Naruto thought to himself... So maybe this Ebisu character was indeed worth the price he required from the parents of his students.

The thought of his own progress in just the last few months began to creep up on Naruto as he came closer and closer to the Academy entrance. Not six months ago he was in a panic, wondering how he would manage to create a bushin. And now he was here, one of the strongest Genin in Konohagakure. Though he hadn't been able to actually compare his strength to his peers, 'Yet,' he mentally reminded himself of the coming Exam, he was a member of the only rookie team to have completed anything above a C rank mission.

Also, Naruto had developed his strength, speed, and his endurance by incredible bounds since he'd been forced to fight with Mizuki. Not to mention the distance he'd come in his chakra control. Naruto had been blessed at birth with a highly unaverage chakra store, and now that his skill at manipulation had risen so dramatically, there is no telling just how much deadlier he'd become. Even if he hadn't taken the early steps into developing his chakra coils, he would have been able to fend off ninja by the time he was in his late teens, just by the effect the increased chakra would have on him physically. This also reminded him he was still growing, and that as he trained himself to become more powerful, as he grew his peak would come closer and closer, though with work he would hopefully never reach it... Or at least never quit growing stronger.

The doors to the academy bore no new distinguishing marks since he'd last entered them, Naruto noticed. He pulled the doors open and examined the lobby with a broad glance over. Still the same. "So, Uzumaki Naruto! I see you finally decided to grace me with your divine presence. Should have figured you would be late with Kakashi as your sensei..." came a nasally voice from the left. Naruto glanced in the direction from whence the voice came and narrowed his eyes.

"I'm only late because Kakashi-sensei was late to the meeting he requested. Sorry, but I didn't even know about you until around ten or fifteen minutes ago."

Ebisu adjusted his round glasses and Naruto could feel the hate emanating from the man. Ebisu snarled, "Don't make excuses! I'm here at the request of Kakashi, and the Hokage, to waste my oh so valuable time and tutor your sorry ass. And it's not going to be easy, Uzumaki. You can count on that!"

Naruto smirked at the man, "I wasn't counting on it."

-

Sakura hated Kakashi. A lot.

The pink haired kunoichi turned along the outer perimeter of the track which encircled the training field, forcing her legs to not slow. Rock Lee was running just in front of her with his body turned around backwards to face her, easily matching her pace without any trouble whatsoever. The bowl haired shinobi dodged to the left, then to the right, and then flipped through the air in time to avoid the traps Sakura not seconds later tripped. A trio of kunai flew from the left. From the right came a barrage of shuriken, and then from straight ahead, from the tree line in front of them flew a wall of shuriken.

Sakura shrieked and summoned a wall of thin chakra in front of her to deflect the attack. The force with which the traps had been sprung was significant enough to actually send several projectiles rocketing through the forcefield and spiraling towards the kunoichi. Her left hand was suddenly encased in chakra and she quickly batted away anything that attempted to cut at her. The sudden strain at the task of manipulating the chakra while still embroiled in an all out sprint had her pace slow ever so slightly, and as Rock Lee noticed a slight distance gaining between them, he looked up towards his sensei, Maito Gai, who stood in the center of the practice field.

Noticing the little glance, Maito Gai pulled a kunai form the pouch at his hip. "YOU SLOW! NO CAN DO, SAKURA-CHAN!" yelled the Ferocious Green Beast of Konoha.

With a small hand motion, Gai cloned about a thousand copies of a kunai with an explosion note attached, and sent them homing in on Sakura. The girl screamed and her pace doubled, her forcefield back up in an instant without straining her enough to slow.

As the kunai edged in closer and closer Sakura felt her eyes tear up at the seeming impossibility of her task. She grit her teeth and forged ahead, forcing chakra into her thighs and calves and ankles. Her legs propelled her even faster. She was outrunning the kunai.

-

Sasuke sat at home on his bed. His only travel bag sat on the floor in front of him. He hadn't packed much. Two towels, a few pairs of underwear, a bar of soap, and his toothbrush and a tube of tooth paste. There was also a small store of emergency food and some minor medical packets containing some antibacterial spray, gauze, and a few band aids. Also, as a small side thought, he'd thrown in a pack of ramen with a little smirk at the florescent orange package.

There really wasn't anything else to do to get prepared for the trip into the mountains he'd make with Kakashi in the morning. There was a charge in the air though, that hadn't been present since the news his team was going on a mission to the Wave. Whether or not Sasuke would ever admit it for fear of ruining his little stoic act, the Uchiha boy was very excited. The prospect of two weeks of close attention from Hatake Kakashi was invigorating. All the things the genius Jounin could teach him. Sasuke knew of Kakashi's past in the ANBU, knew of his kill ratio, knew of his feared reputation in all the other countries. The possibilities were endless.

Kakashi knew techniques that could supposedly destroy entire villages in an instant, could kill a thousand men in their sleep, drive an enemy ninja to insanity using only a hand sign. Of course, there was also word of Kakashi's trademark technique which had gained him untold infamy in most of the outside world and made the chirping of birds an omen of death usually regarded with much more grim figures tha a flock of birds..

Sasuke had two weeks of private training with Lightning Cutter Kakashi. Copy Ninja Kakashi. Kakashi the living legend. Sasuke's fists clenched and a demonic, evil little smirk found its way onto his face. There was a wild look in the boy's eyes. A power hungry look that had once been found on another ebony haired young man in similar circumstances. Dismissing his ravenous thoughts of what power he would soon hold, or at least attempting to, Sasuke lay back into his bed and fell asleep. His dreams were filled with images of revenge and death. He awoke several hours later when one of his dreamed encounters didn't quite end in the manner which was most pleasing. Rubbing his neck where the sword had began to cut, Sasuke's body involuntarily shivered. His eyes drifted over to the alarm clock at his bedside. With a little smile, Sasuke began to get up.

-

(A/N) Now look, I know it's been ten or eleven months since I last updated. But no shit, I wrote 17 pages in about three days. Just a couple hours of work, really, if you break it down. The next chapter will cover both the training and the Chuunin Exam. I'm not sure if the entire Exam Saga will be explored, but I know at least the test will be covered, which is really the gayest part, but whatever.

Huh, just noticed that every chapter gets bigger. Neato.


	6. Chapter 5

A/N: Okay, when you start reading this you're going to think, "OH, SHIT, NOT ANOTHER OVERPOWERED NARUTO STORY!" well... uh-oh! Nah, but seriously. I'm going to do something I hope comes across as a little original, while still factoring in the Kyuubi's influence element that has attracted me for so long.

The exam is going to be similar to the canon exam, but I reorganized the time line just a little.

So here's Chapter Five – Informal Gluttony! R&R, please!

* * *

A Tale of Two Beasts: Harmony & Chaos

Chapter Five: Informal Gluttony

Silence followed by a deafening roar. There was no explanation for the amount of destruction that Naruto witnessed in his dreams. Gargantuan buildings of stone and steel which pierced into the very sky suddenly bent and torn asunder by the thousands from some immense explosion. A cloud that spread into the sky carried with it invisible death. A sickness spread to the surrounding villages and into the bodies of the people and animals, all living things that survived the giant blast which had just destroyed what must surely be the homes of some long forgotten race of gods. What else could reside in such grandiose buildings?

The very earth wilted beneath the force of this explosion, the grass charred in an instant, all life extinguished in the blink of an eye. And still, while the city of insurmountable size was rocked by the incredible force of the blast, the sickness spread. From his vantage point among the clouds Naruto watched through a crimson filter. The sickness, a disease unlike anything Naruto's young and troubled mind could possibly comprehend, was infecting and rotting the very skin off those it caressed with its necrotic touch.

His vision zoomed in on a group of children who must have been attending an academy of some sort. The horde of youth looked in the direction of the blast, and then they all began to melt, the skin sloughing off their bodies as if it hoped to abandon them and escape the coming hell. Their faceless skulls were soon engulfed in fire, and then all was burnt to ash.

The silence returned, and still the sickness spread. His vision became even greater in scale. The entire world was in his sights, and across the lands he saw similar events happening on nearly available inch, all followed by a thin trail of smoke. 'Weapons,' thought Naruto in nauseated silence. The world burned, and all Naruto could think of was how much he hated the feeling of pleasure which trickled along his neck.

-

Naruto awoke with a start, and looked at his surroundings. 'Where the hell am I?' he pondered, looked around at the grimy stone walls. He was wet, he realized. He stood up, and was a nearly ankle deep in water. He sniffed, and was pleased to at least find it was not sewage. The blond looked up into an infinite expanse of black. There was a shimmer somewhere up there, he could see, but the distance between his current location and that of the sparkling ceiling he could not begin to fathom.

Naruto stretched out his senses in hope of finding some clue as to why he was here. Some form of life, maybe? Something that could give him some answers. Unfortunately, what he found wasn't what he expected. Somewhere in the distance he found a black hole, and around it he could sense more of the same. Nothing at all.

He grimaced and trudged forward through the water, intent of locating this black hole which escaped him. It only took a few moments before the vacuum was replaced by malice. Hate. The scent of burning flesh and blood reached his nostrils. Had he died, was he in Hell? Naruto looked around frantically, dropping into a crouch.

There was an echoing laugh, so deep it nearly paralyzed the young boy with fear. But Naruto was no normal child and he ground his teeth together and stood back up, ignoring the desperate clenching at his heart which demanded he flee. Naruto wasn't scared. He wasn't running from anything. He followed where he thought the sound originated from, towards the black hole which was slowly transforming into something very, very bad.

Naruto warily turned the only corner he'd seen in the tunnel, and his eyes widened dramatically.

"**I see you've finally come to visit, boy."**

Naruto shook, and pointed, "Kyuubi no Kitsune...?!"

Indeed, the greatest demon lord in all the world looked him dead in the eyes, the two beings separated only by gray bars that looked suddenly brittle to the genin, the demon's bright burning slants of pure evil sending incredible amounts of killing intent to the boy. The air was so thick of his power that Naruto nearly choked, and just as Kyuubi felt the first stirrings of a spell at work on entrancing his host, the blond suddenly shouted, "Why in the fuck am I here, you overgrown fur ball?!"

Kyuubi sat staring at the child for a few seconds in shock, and then burst into laughter. The prison, for Naruto now had realized just what it was he was currently located in, crackled and shook from the deep, raucous laughter. Kyuubi flashed a deadly smile, **"It's been a long time since anyone, especially a mortal, sought to talk to me in ****such a**** fashion. Probably a good twenty thousand years, maybe? Hah! Yeah, you're all big and bad with these bars separating us... Now see here, I've got something to offer you, child."**

Naruto tilted his head and took a step forward, "What exactly do you have in mind, eh?"

Kyuubi nodded towards the left, and Naruto followed his gaze to a white rectangle that was apparently a part of the wall, and Naruto knew it hadn't been there a second ago, **"What I'm about to propose might be a little bit much, but after all, you're going to need all the help you can get with the coming storm, boy, and if you die, I die, and we won't have that if I can help it."**

Naruto glared at the fox demon, "You're the cause for all the shit I've had to deal with all this time? You expect me to do something to help you? I should just go home and kill myself to spite you, you god damned monster..."

Kyuubi chuckled darkly, **"As amusing as that is, you won't do that. We both know it. After all, we are inside your head... Sort of. Technically, it's a connection between your seal and your mind, but you know... Look, as a sort of... rent payment, hows about I lend you some of my chakra every now and then? In fact, as a down payment, when you wake up, you'll have a surprise waiting on you. Our time is growing short, anyway. You'll soon find out how to contact me."**

Naruto found himself being pulled towards the white door which must have led to the impromptu exit of his mind. Oh, wait, bridge. The last thing he heard was the beast's demonic laughter.

-

Across town Kurama paused in his exercises. Thankfully, Anko had trusted him enough to continue in her absence and had gone to her home to sleep. Kurama smirked and looked towards the moon. A red sheen had begun to coat the milky white orb, and seemingly as soon as it appeared, it vanished. Kurama turned in the direction of Naruto's apartment, 'Kyuubi-sama...'

Like a bullet he was gone, sprinting at top speed towards where he senses his Lord and Master's youki flourishing brilliantly. It was truly beautiful, looking through his reiki spectrum, the brilliant red arcs of light swirling and engulfing the projects of the town, so bright as to be seen from the practice fields. Of course, to the shinobi and the humans of the village, at least those not sensitive to spiritual energies, they would have no idea that something major was taking place.

Kurama broke into a dead sprint, and leaped onto the roof of a nearby house just on the outskirts of the practice field. He laughed and twirled through the air, delighted at the crimson aura that had begun to permeate the area.

-

Naruto awoke in his bed, his sheets soaking wet with sweat. It was dark, and his entire body seemed stricken with a numb, pins and needles feeling. But it was also unbearably hot. He maneuvered himself onto his side and reached for the light, and as he flicked the switch he was suddenly able to see his entire home filled with smoke... or maybe fog. It didn't smell like smoke, at least, Naruto realized after inhaling deeply through his nose. He left his bed, and made his way to the bathroom, having the sudden, urgent need to relive himself.

Entering the small bathroom he flicked the light switch and walked past the fogged mirror, which answered his question about what was in filling his apartment, and lifted the toilet seat. He grasped himself and sighed at the pleasant feeling, and then the flow ceased. Naruto looked down and felt himself recoil as sharp pains began running down from his stomach and throughout his body, before centering somewhere in his insides. His urine began to flow urgently, now tinted a deep, bloody red.

-

Kurama paced back and forth in front of the entrance to Uzumaki Naruto's apartment, awaiting for the signal to either enter, perhaps Naruto to exit. It ended up being the latter. The young blond peered over the railing from a few stories up and gave him a quizzical look. Both shinobi stared at each other for a few seconds, before Naruto said, "Uh, hey, Kurama..."

Kurama gave him a seething glare at his expectations of Kyuubi having taken possession being dashed, but reigned in the magnificent anger building in him. He started to speak, and then shut his mouth. Kurama turned away from the apartment and then snarled, "Nothing, just go back to bed. I'll see you soon."

With that, the crimson haired shinobi jumped onto the roof of a nearby building and sprinted towards the training area which was soon to be beaten into looking like a war zone. Naruto watched the form of his teammate move farther and farther away, and then went back inside. Passing through his small home, he turned towards the mirror hung opposite his bed and peered at his half clothed form barely visible in the darkness. His eyes sparkled a fiery red in the reflection, and Naruto nearly screamed in surprise. He looked down at himself with worry, wondering just what the demon had done to him.

-

Time under their respective tutors passed in varying degrees. For Kurama it seemed all too quick, passing swiftly through his days filled with nearly non stop strenuous training and incredibly short rest periods during the night. Sasuke's time spent under Kakashi's tutelage proved similar, though he was treated with surely a much higher degree of mercy than the red head was treated with. Sakura was sore to the bone, but still she ran and fought and slept in close companionship with the new team. The exercise was making her stronger by leaps and bounds, improving her physical strength and the amount of chakra circulating inside her. She was forced to rely on her more experienced teammates to keep going, and this was hopefully serving to make her more receptive to her supportive role as a teammate. Yes, for the majority of Team Seven, things were moving along extremely quickly.

For Naruto, however, it was some of the most frustrating time he'd ever spent. Hours upon hours of lectures on both practical and theoretical chakra uses, proper taijutsu form and technique, and so many other small details were drilled into him day in and day out. The struggle to not only know all of these things that were designed to turn this street fighting child into a precise killing machine was hard enough, but putting them into practice seemed next to impossible, seeing as all his time was spent studying.

Naruto knew there was more to it than to just correct his form. Ebisu was doing this to torture him, and he was sick of reading the same fucking passages thirty or forty times and then reciting it from memory just to humor the self appointed 'God Tutor'. "Hey, Ebisu! How's this for proper chakra manipulation? HENGE!"

-

Leaving the unconscious form of Ebisu on the classroom floor, Naruto wandered through the village, wondering how much he was being left behind because of his inactivity. He finally made his way to the bath houses, where he noticed a certain peculiarity. Hiding from view, leaning into one of the open vents at the top was a rather large figure, with a mane of white hair that fell down his back in a neat pile. "Hey, pervert, what the fuck are you doing?!" he yelled, smirking slightly as the sound reached the women inside.

Around thirty pairs of eyes met the peeping tom's own, significantly wider pair with shock, and not a little anger. Naruto turned away, chuckling at having foiled the pervert's plans, when all of a sudden he was grabbed by the collar and hauled in the opposite direction too quickly to attempt to change course. As he was being dragged he tried to use his strength and stop by digging his feet into the ground, but that only served to dig rivets into the dirt path he and whoever his captor were flying down, "HEY, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING, YOU DIRTY OLD MAN?!"

The man merely laughed before stopping extremely quick, Naruto's form jerking from the hold and nearly snapping his neck from the inertia. "Well, I think we're far enough away now.. Finally, safe and sound... JUST WHAT IN THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING, BRAT?!"

Naruto just glared at him, then grunted out quickly, "Well I just couldn't resist doing some good for the city, you pervert. Too damn many of your around, corrupting our youth! First Ebisu, now this..."

The white haired man titled his head, "Ebisu? The tutor? Just what are you being tutored for, boy?"

Naruto pointed to his headband and deadpanned, "Genin. Chuunin Exams."

The old man's right hand shot into action, forming a few dozen seals in about an instant, and his eyes flashed as the chakra gathered. He scanned over Naruto a few times, "Damn you've got a lot of chakra, brat." He left out the other thing he'd noticed, the seal practically flaring with energy on his abdomen. "I can see why you'd go to Ebisu. You have more chakra than a lot of Jounin, but most likely you can't control it worth a damn. Smart choice. Kakashi must have chosen him, eh, dobe?"

Naruto glared at him, and snarled, "Don't you dare call me that, you old pervert fuck!" Naruto moved as if to take a swing at him, and the man vanished suddenly. Naruto felt a powerful clamp suddenly latch onto the wrist of his reared back hand, and was then lifted into the air and thrown onto the ground. The impact knocked the breath out of him, as well as making white spots dance in his vision.

"I figured that would get a reaction out of you, Uzumaki. Kakashi's too smart for his own good. He hasn't learned that second guessing isn't always bad. You've already gotten incredibly bored by Ebisu, haven't you? Well how about I take over your training for a little while, eh?"

Naruto looked up at the man, "Erk, who are you?"

The man laughed uproariously, "I'm Jiraiya, the Toad Sennin, of the Konoha Sannin. I'm a legend. From my count you've only got about a week left before the Exams begin, correct?" Jiraiya offered a hand to the boy.

Naruto nodded and took the offered assistance, and stood. "Alright, Ero-sennin," he said, Jiraiya shivering in distaste to the title, "I'll take up your offer, but I hope the studying will be kept to a minimal."

The Sannin chuckled, "We'll see. As long as you keep the pervert comments to a minimum." Jiraiya ruffled the boy's hair and smiled, 'Let's see just what you can do...'

-

Naruto followed the Sannin, Jiraiya, towards the practice fields, all the while examining the man's form. He was garbed in an odd looking outfit, as far as shinobi attire usually went. Of course, in the nearly thirteen years Naruto had spent in Konoha, he'd learned that the more eccentric the shinobi or kunoichi was, usually the more powerful. He didn't know hardly any of these ninja by name, but you could tell as soon as you saw them. There was one woman he often saw around the seedier parts of town near his apartment who smelled of death and blood so thoroughly that after she had left the area, you could still be able to find her just by following the smell, and he was no Inuzuka.

There was the man that always seemed to stalk Kakashi, as well, the one always clad in a too tight green singlet with a ridiculous haircut who spouted out cliches left and right. 'Oh, wasn't Sakura training with him and his team?' Naruto asked himself. He then mentally flipped through the faces of the most eccentric shinobi and kunoichi he knew of. Of course, Naruto himself was pretty eccentric, he realized suddenly. He smiled suddenly, finding the clue that related him to Konoha's elite very pleasing. He was jolted out of his thoughts by bumping into the solid form of his newly appointed tutor.

Naruto looked around at the area, it was one of the middle difficulty training fields. There were mildly dangerous hazards all throughout, with various traps placed around as well. He glanced up at the Sannin, "So, we training here, then?"

Jiraiya turned and nodded, and then asked, "Okay, let's see just what your capable of, then. I want you to traverse the training grounds as quickly as possible, with as little injury as possible. You can go whenever you're ready, I'll keep time."

Naruto glanced around, and then did a little stretching. He summoned his chakra and shot off towards the tree stump which marked most training grounds and practice fields starting and end point for their respective tracks.

As the white haired Toad Sennin watched the young blond charge through the traps and hazards, dodging this way and that, he gave a small smile. It felt good to be teaching again.

-

After running through the maze of traps as fast as he could manage, Naruto stood, covered in a light sweat and slightly flushed, but otherwise not tired at all. Jiraiya scanned him over and saw that he'd gotten nicked several times, but already the little scratches had healed. "Well, as far as speed goes you're not really all that bad, but not really all that good. You've got above average strength for your rank and age level, and of course you just ran nearly two miles and you're not even winded, so... that's actually really good, but I'd already heard about your stamina... this healing thing, though, that's a little unusual."

Naruto nodded at the comments, and wondered where exactly this was getting to.

Jiraiya put his thumb up to his mouth and bit down, drawing blood, and then formed a set of seals slowly, and to his side popped a small toad, which looked first at Naruto, then at Jiraiya. It then looked back to Naruto and waved. Naruto stared at it with a confused expression, but returned the salutation. The small toad jumped over to the blond and looked him over, "Who's the kid, Jiraiya?"

"New pupil, at least temporarily. His name's Uzumaki Naruto. Figured he might be worthy of the Toad Summon scroll. Whatcha think, Gamakichi?"

The small toad, who was revealed to be named Gamakichi, looked back over towards his summoner, "I dunno, you better ask the boss about that... But whatever. If you're not going to need me, I'm just going to go, though, okay? Okay, bye." The toad didn't wait for a yes or no, and vanished in a puff of smoke. Jiraiya squeezed his thumb to let more blood flow and flipped through the same set of seals, a little faster.

This time, a huge puff of smoke engulfed the area, and out from behind the cloud came a giant toad that towered over the trees. The giant toad looked around and took a puff from the pipe in his mouth. "Jiraiya, what is the meaning of this? I don't see anything about to kill anyone, so what's the deal, eh?"

Jiraiya muttered through his hand, "New pupil, going to give summon contract."

The huge toad chuckled roughly, "I like the way you asked me just then. I can't actually say no to that. You know you don't need my approval, I trusted you enough with the seal that you'd use good judgment in any candidates. Sign the kid. Oh, and don't bother me like this again. There better be some sort of peril going on the next time you call on me. See ya." And like his much, much smaller counterpart, he also vanished in smoke.

Jiraiya sighed and then smiled brightly at his new pupil, "Well, Naruto, what do you think about that? The Toad Summon Contract is one of the most highly sought after summoning contracts in the world. The Yondaime was bound to the Toad Summon, as were so many others before him. The summoning skill is actually a perquisite to becoming a Jounin, so you would actually have a leg up on the competition in the long run. Also, it would be a great asset to somebody with so much chakra."

Naruto perked up at the mention of having an advantage, and was ready to sign as soon as that left Jiraiya's mouth, "Let's do it!"

Naruto bit into his thumb with a small wince, and sat there waiting for Jiraiya to unroll the great scroll. After he did so, the blond knelt down, briefly scanning through the previously listed names. There was Jiraiya's name, and then the Yondaime's name, Namikaze Minato. His brow furrowed at seeing that name. There were conflicting emotions. Both the greatest Hokage to ever govern Konohagakure, and also the cause for all his problems. Everything negative in his life could be traced back to that man. And even his appearance haunted him, the similarities between the two causing Naruto's gut to tighten every time he looked up towards the Hokage Monument.

Naruto signed his name. He paused afterwards and looked around. He looked at his arms, and his hands. He looked up at Jiraiya, "So... that's it? I don't feel any different..."

Jiraiya nodded, "Yeah, that's normal. You aren't actually changed or anything. It simply ties your chakra to the contract so you can actually summon them anywhere you want without having to have possession of the scroll. Here are the seals you need to perform the technique." The Toad Sennin briefly went through them, Naruto carefully examining his every move.

"Let's see how far you can go... Try summoning something."

Naruto stepped back and performed the seals, admirably attempting to put some muscle into it and forcing a little extra chakra into the technique. The result wasn't what he expected.

A small puff of smoke popped into existence, and there was a moment of silence, then, "What the hell?"

From the smoke emerged the tiny toad that Jiraiya had summoned previously. Gamakichi looked at both Jiraiya and Naruto, then sighed, "Can I please get a little peace, please?" Naruto and Jiraiya looked at each other, Naruto with a grimace, and Jiraiya with a light smile. Gamakichi poofed into nonexistence.

"Try again, Naruto."

He did.

There was another puff of smoke.

"WHAT THE HELL, JIRAIYA?!"

Jiraiya watched in silence as Naruto ground his teeth, furiously cursing all manners of creation. They'd summoned Gamakichi nearly ten times, and though Naruto was by far not winded, he had ultimately screwed himself over. In the beginning, his unnatural amounts of chakra had been extremely hard to focus. Now that he'd gotten the hang of concentrating it for smaller tasks, he couldn't offset the 'kinking of the hose' that he'd had to do to get his control so much better in favor of using a gargantuan amount at will.

The Sannin snapped his fingers, "Boy, I've got it! Okay, naturally you've gotten more chakra than you know what to do with. To counterbalance that you've been sort of tying off the flow, kinking the hose, if you will. What we need you to do is put your thumb over the end. It's up to you to figure that out, though."

Naruto nodded and ran through the seals, an his face turning red from forcing chakra out.

There was a puff of smoke, and again there was Gamakichi. He looked like the most pissed off toad in the world.

Naruto swore, "GODAMMIT!"

While Naruto paced back and forth, ranting and screaming voracious profanity at nothing in particular, Jiraiya watched him with a calculating eye. He sighed, knowing there wasn't any other way, "Naruto, come here for a second. I've got something serious to talk to you about."

Naruto paused in his rant to listen to the old man. He approached him somewhat warily, knowing serious talks usually sucked. Oh, wait. They always sucked.

"Look, point blank, the seal is messing with your chakra flow. You've managed to overcome one handicap and have been blindsided by another. This can be overcome, but we don't have the time. You're going to have to talk... to it," Jiraiya finished, and stiffly looked into Naruto's wide eyes.

"You know about...?" Naruto asked.

Jiraiya nodded, "I've known about it longer than you have. Gamabunta, the boss toad, fought against the damned thing. Now, listen to my plan. You're going to have to bargain with him for chakra. With the Kyuubi's chakra, there are no limits. Period." Jiraiya turned to face the Hokage Monument, and walked over in that direction, the edge of the cliff they stood on.

Naruto followed him.

Jiraiya laughed, "Good luck!"

Naruto looked up at him in question. He was met by a swift kick in the ass that booted him halfway across the small valley. His descent began swiftly. Naruto frantically tried to make his way to the side to grab hold, but as soon as he made contact, the rocks simple fell away. The entire side seemed to be on the point of erosion. He was going to die. Naruto began to panic, and tried to do as the Sannin had told, but found he couldn't actually lapse into the sewer. He closed his eyes, and concentrated hard.

He opened them, expecting to find himself back in the musky dungeon. Instead he met the sight of cold, hard ground. He struck the near rock solid clad, hard. He bounced back up into the air, and felt his organs shift around. His eyes nearly popped from his skull, and he felt his bowels release. He chuckled weakly, more a strangled gasp. He coughed, and blood splattered the ground in front of him. Naruto's head felt as if it were going to burst. He closed his eyes, then jolted them open. He inhaled sharply and then breathed out slowly.

Naruto sat up slowly. In an instant Jiraiya was next to him, looking horrified. Naruto coughed up some more blood, then turned to look at the Toad Sennin, "I'm... I'm okay." Naruto bent forward and put his hands forward to push up. Shakily, he came to his feet. "Oh, I shit my pants..."

Jiraiya actually laughed a little, "That's weird, because that usually happens when someone dies... Must have-*snicker*-scared the shit outta you!"

Naruto gave him an eat shit and die look, then limped in the direction of the town, "Get me to my apartment, Jiraiya. I'm alive but I really need to change."

The large man guffawed and walked alongside his pupil, "I think there are some things about you, boy, that are better kept as secrets... Uh, damn, I'm going to have to walk a little a head of you."

Naruto glared at him and kept walking, ignoring the spastic laughter.

* * *

The rain beat heavily on the roof. The noise served the ghostly figure well, masking the sound of screams. Room to room the assassin traveled, the squealing figure he carried alongside him attempting to reason with him vainly. He blanketed the floors and walls in a slick sheen of blood with his ebony katana. The family of ninja were strong, but they weren't even remotely close to a challenge to this devilish fiend of a man.

The patriarch of the family had stood to challenge him as he barged into the secluded mansion. There wasn't much foot traffic in this area, so far from the center of town. The thundering blows that the demonic creature struck the man with couldn't be heard. The jounin who sought to confront him was beaten within an inch of his life with Kyo's bare hands. He snuffed out his life in the most degrading way possible. He dragged his limp form behind him through a rope of chakra which burned through his skin ever so slowly, he was made to witness the horrific deaths of his family.

With little fanfare, the twenty or so lives inside the mansion were taken away by a technique the jounin had never seen. As they sought to challenge the man, or to flee, they simply burst into bloody chunks of flesh. No fire, no lightning. But the process was slow. As they swole to inhuman levels their flesh tore and ripped, spurting blood until their shells cracked and they exploded in a grotesque manner, bathing everything around them in crimson showers.

"You're a failure. Your name will not be remembered. You have no honor. You've failed in the most atrocious manner possible. You were responsible for these people. Look at them. Trash. How do you hold yourself, with such pride? There is nothing for you now but death. And how do you think you'll be received...? You deserve nothing but eternal torture for your weakness," said Kyo in a deep, cold voice, letting the rope of chakra connecting them vanish. He reached down and grasped the man's arms, breaking them at the wrist, then at the elbow, and finally pulling them out of their sockets at the shoulder.

With two quick strikes of his feet, the man's hips were shattered. He screamed, a high pitched, grating noise. Kyo took one of the abandoned tantos that one of the women had, and tossed it to him. Kyo chuckled, and sounded more like a choking hiss, "I'd say you have a few hours before you are discovered and it is revealed how much of a failure you are. You still have time to attempt and salvage what little honor there is left in suicide."

Without a sound, Kyo left the dying man to attempt and kill himself. Mizu no Kuni, the Land of Water, was an oddity among the other ninja countries. Many of the islands' ninja held themselves to strict Samurai oriented principals. Were this in another country, the psychological torture he'd just inflicted on the worthless sack of trash would have been ineffective. In other countries, the man would have never killed himself. Sought revenge. Sought power.

In Mizu no Kuni, at least on this island, to let oneself be discovered to have failed in protecting his or her family would result in the greatest dishonor, and when he or she does perish, they would be forced to eternal damnation for their worthlessness. Left in his pathetic state, the patriarch was incapable of committing ritual suicide. With little fanfare, Kyo faded into mist. The speckles of hidden blood colored the cloud crimson, but as he rose towards the treetops, the bloody mist lowered towards the ground and degenerated into a puddle. Kyo flew towards the sky, ethereal.

* * *

The eyes of a Hyuuga scarcely missed anything. Most observant, Hyuuga Neji had watched the many foreign ninja pouring into the city the last few days. With less than a week left until the opening ceremony, his competition was less ferocious than he'd been expecting. There was one group, however, that was starkly different from the others. The ninja from Grass. There was something eerie about them.

By far, Neji estimated, the ninja from Grass and their nearly creepy compatriots from the Sand would blow the competition to the wayside. They would be the show stoppers. Neji grunted and began to stab at the mounted log with greater ferocity, ignoring the burning, stinging pain felt as his raw, bleeding fingertips met the hard, raw wood. He would not let himself be beaten.

-

Kurama's training under Mitarashi Anko had seen him improve in the ninja arts dramatically. His physical strength had probably doubled, and his speed had improved drastically. Not to mention his already great pain tolerance had improved.

Most important, he had reigned in the youki that tempted him with power so volatile. Just as Kyuubi had warned him so many years ago, his power would be his weakness. He hadn't understood it at that time. After all, Kyuubi's power definitely wasn't his weakness...

Now he and his mentor sat underneath one of the outside dining umbrellas in the food court of one of Konohagakure's better shopping outlets. Dango was Anko's favorite, he'd learned, and every other day it was a requisite that the take a lunch break for the tasty treat. Only her, though. Kurama was usually left running for doing exercises eternal. But with only two days left until the Chuunin exams, training had come to a cease. What was done was done. He needed rest for his body to fully absorb the increase in power, and his mind needed the rest to further be able to fully control the extra strength he now had.

Anko chewed idly on one of the empty skewers, and laughed quietly. Kurama turned in her direction, simply staring at her. She chuckled again, a little louder, "It's kinda funny. I haven't been able to teach anyone since... well, it's been a long time. I kinda missed it." She turned to look at his somewhat discolored face which still showed evidence of heavy bruising, and frowned, "Well, maybe I didn't miss that much. Fuck you're ugly."

Kurama laughed.

-

The battle had been raging for about an hour. Sakura poured sweat. Her opponent, Rock Lee, wasn't even winded. This didn't escape their peers or their sensei as they watched on, but both knew it was impressive to still be going this long. Rock Lee and Neji had sparred intensely before, but the matches never lasted this long. Tenten felt a strong dislike churning in her stomach for the pink kunoichi.

Finally, a change. Rock Lee smashed his head through Sakura's hasty block which sent both arms flying. His forehead cracked into her own and she was sent flying into the dirt behind her, a large cloud of dust following her collision.

Gai stepped out in front of Rock Lee, "Good job, both of you." The tall Jounin stepped forward and helped the kunoichi stand. She stood shakily, panting. Gai knelt and whispered to her, "Sakura, whether or not you realize it, you've improved drastically. Not many Chuunin can stand with him for such a long period of time. I've only seen maybe two other Genin with the same capacity as Rock Lee, and here you are, after only days, standing even." She wasn't even with him. He knew this, and everyone else on the team knew this. He hadn't been going all out, even. But she had improved. A lot.

Sakura smiled slightly, and was surprised to feel Gai hug her, "Congratulations, Sakura." The rest of the team gathered closer, each one of them putting their palms on her back. Even Neji patted her once before stoically backing away.

-

Sasuke sat on the edge of the cliff overlooking the city. He sat with his head down, and his right arm laying in his lap, as if he was nursing it. The appendage was red and the skin looked charred in some places. To his left stood Kakashi, silently appraising the same view that Sasuke was. "You're doing good, Sasuke. Get some sleep, you'll need it."

As Kakashi silently padded away to his tent, Sasuke smiled grimly. This was where he thrived. Being pushed. His companions and peers were resting right now, and had nothing but rest planned tomorrow as well. Sasuke would train, and he would fight. He needed to. It was the way he meant to live. His eyes turned, trained on Kakashi's flashlight. The man hadn't opted to read any tonight, and the light flickered out after only a minute or two.

Sasuke turned away from the cliff and lay on his stomach. He began doing push ups. "One. Two. Three..." The process continued into the early morning, where he finally found rest. Unfortunately, it was in the form of unwilling unconsciousness, passed out from exhaustion. As he hit the ground and slept, Kakashi came from his tent to drag the boy into his own. He'd had the foresight to know Sasuke wouldn't go to bed until his body forced him to do so.

Kakashi set the young shinobi down and backed out of the structure, zipping the door shut. He would let him sleep late the next day, and it would be a light day. Hatake Kakashi was a good teacher, whether he thought he was or not. His students would become legendary in their own rights, just as Cell 7 had so many years earlier under the Sandaime Hokage. He entered his own tent and lay back, closing his eyes and going to sleep. It was a long, pleasant night for both of them.

-

Naruto sat up in his bed, bare back against the bare wall, right arm upraised to view his upturned palm. His eyes traced the faint outline of newly grown skin. Once more, to prove he hadn't imagined it, he ran the kunai across the wrinkled surface of. The kunai didn't slice through. He pushed harder, and still no blood. Bringing it back to the apex of his thumb and index finger, he tore into the skin, nearly slashing in such a ferocious notion. The skin finally parted, and blood merely trickled out for a few seconds before the cut sealed shut.

So this was his gift?

The exam opened with the Hokage formally welcoming all of the visiting ninja. The visiting teams ranged from the Rookie 9 of Konoha to the top ranked Genin teams of Sand, Grass, Sound, and several other foreign countries.

Sandaime viewed the amassed group from under his kage visor, the varied colors so distinct in their blandness it was a remarkable sight. Across the courtyard the uniforms ranged from dull brown to black to dark green and others. Only the bright eyesore of Uzumaki Naruto differed. As such, everyone around the blond shinobi felt themselves drawn to his outright tacky outfit.

It took a great force of will for the Hokage to quit staring at his favorite Genin. He addressed the group once, more entailing the process of the Chuunin Exams, "To my right is Ibiki-san. He will be administering the first test. Please follow him to the Academy where you will all be seated accordingly and be administered the only written portion of the test. Thank you for coming, and good luck to you all."

No one missed the brilliant orange form shiver at the mention of a written test.

-

Naruto sat between Sakura and Kurama, with Sasuke to the left of the pink haired girl. The blond was anxious. No, the term could more adequately be described as 'freaking the fuck out'. Kurama and Sasuke were prodigies, and Sakura was probably the smartest of the Rookie 9. She definitely had the best grades out of them all. And Naruto?

Naruto frowned. Who the hell ever said he wasn't smart? As the instructor, the scary looking Jounin known as Ibiki read through the rules, Naruto paid very little attention. He was now ranting and raving under the hood about why exactly he was thinking he was incapable of completing and passing this exam. The tests were being passed out.

Naruto took a look at the first page and winced.

-

Ibiki frowned.

The ninja gathered hadn't taken the bait yet. Ibiki sighed and paced around the front of the room, waiting for something to catch his attention. It came in a form he didn't expect. He didn't actually believe he sensed what he was sensing. And then it was gone. He stared daggers at the Uzumaki child who either couldn't sense the killing intent, or simply ignored it. Ibiki slowly, warily approached the boy via the stairs on either side of the bleacher seats.

-

"**The answers are B, F, C, A, E, A, D, C, C, A, B, D, C, F, A, E."**

Naruto shivered stiffly, confused if he'd actually heard that whisper like snarl from inside his mind.

"**B. F. C..."**

Still Naruto sat stock stiff, attempting to ignore the louder snarls which listed the answers.

"**A. E. A. D..."**

Naruto finally recanted, and realized the whispering was real. He hastily reached for his pencil and began scribbling as the letters repeated.

"**Turn the page."**

Naruto did as told and grinned a toothy grin. He looked to the side and laughed quietly. He was already past both Sakura and Kurama. He listened once more as the Kyuubi mentally conferred the answers. From the corner of his eye Naruto noticed Ibiki giving him particularly close attention. He looked up and met his eyes. Ibiki stared for a few more seconds, then nodded and turned away.

Ibiki cursed, wondering just where such malevolent chakra came from. He knew he'd felt it. Smelled the blood and death the sensation made him recall. But it was gone now. He clenched his fists inside his jacket and locked his jaw. It would be best to mention this to Sarutobi once he saw him.

-

Ibiki slapped the proctor podium. Hard. The resounding clap jarred all the occupants of the room. After the second page they'd finally fallen into the predicted choice of action. Nearly a full third of the room had resorted to cheating. Some through admittedly genius tactics, others through outright blunt and simple ways. There weren't many caught, however. Ibiki smiled sickly and spoke, "There is only one more question. If you choose to answer it and miss it, you will never be able to take the Chuunin Exams ever again. Refuse to answer it and you're disqualified. Either way, it doesn't really matter to me. Now, raise your hands if you choose to leave. Same rules apply, one failure in the team, the whole team is counted as such. Well, who is going to quit?"

At first no one reacted. The wheels began to turn, and three or four squads began to leave. Naruto's arm trembled, and everyone on his team began giving him hateful, evil glares. Naruto stood and pointed at Ibiki, "You're full of shit! I'll take on your question! Anybody not willing to take risks isn't going to get anywhere, anyway. Bring it on!" Naruto sat down heavily and grabbed his pencil, ready.

Ibiki was caught between laughing and grimacing. He was impressed. He was also disappointed. Nobody else chose to leave. He opted to go with the former reaction, "Well, congratulations to everyone who stayed. You pass."

Despite the bravado that Naruto had just exhibited, his head slunk to the desk top with great force.

The celebratory spirit that spread throughout the class was shattered, much like a certain window, as Mitarashi Anko shot inside. She sent out an alarming burst of killing intent, to which most of the ninja in the room felt and were nearly paralyzed. Ibiki dispelled it without a thought and approached her.

The snake woman turned her head back, "You really did a shitty job, Ibiki. There's like... nobody eliminated."

Ibiki nodded, "Well, we eliminated about four or five squads..." He then motioned his head to Naruto, "He gave a little pep talk at the end."

Anko tsked, and then shouted, "I'm Mitarashi Anko. You will address me as Anko-sama. I don't give a damn about how many of you are left or how well you did on the test. You're all about to get a real taste of what it means to be a ninja. Follow me to your next examination. I'm going to cut your numbers in half." Before she exited, she turned around and winked at nothing in particular. Only Kurama understood the gesture for what it was.

-

The group stood in front of a horrific looking forest. The chain link fence which surrounded it lay on the outer perimeter of an even taller fence, with barbed wire running throughout the sparse couple of feet in between the two. Anko smiled, "This is what is known as the Forest of Death. Your mission is to make it to the tower at the center within the next three days. Before I open the gates, I need you to sign a waiver dismissing the nation of Konoha and all of its affiliates from any wrongdoing in the event of your death, blah, blah, blah. Pens will be passed around, as well."

Naruto couldn't be happier. They had Kurama with them, the fucking plant master. He looked over at the red haired shinobi who returned his look with a curious notion. Naruto gave him a thumbs up, and mouthed, "Oh yeah!" Kurama gave a lack luster thumbs up as well. He sighed in derision at the enthusiastic shinobi. Naruto began dancing.

"Uzumaki, chill out!"

A kunai bounced off of Naruto's cheek

He looked back at Anko in anger. She glared at him, hiding the confusion as to why her kunai hadn't pierced the skin, "The others are scared enough of the forest. I don't need your stupid dancing to further embarrass them, or me."

Naruto didn't respond, but felt a great burning anger building. There was suddenly a pleasant, albeit also disgusting sensation of someone _licking his cheek_. He jumped away and turned around, staring death at the pale grass ninja which had just finished cleaning his cheek. The ninja's voice was a hiss, "So enthusiastic. If only I could get a taste of your blood... Oh well, we have plenty of time left." The freaky ninja's incredible long, forked tongue grabbed the kunai which lay beside them and sauntered up to Anko, handing it back with an unrecognizable look haunting the ninja's eyes, "Here you go..."

Anko snatched it back and turned away from the ninja, holstering the kunai and waiting for the forms to finish being handed out. As the last of the Chuunin collected the waivers and allotted pens, Anko reached for the lever which opened the gates.

The Chuunin assisting Anko also began handing out scrolls. Anko nodded as everyone received one. "These scrolls have a seal in their contents. To actually pass this portion of the exam, each team must have one of each type of scroll. You can tell which is which by the exterior's marking. For the idiots not paying attention, there are two types. You open them in the forest and you fail. Do not open your scroll until you are safely in the lobby."

She smiled, "You have 72 hours to make it to the tower. Good luck. Now... Go!"

The Genin sprinted towards the opening. Little did they know it, the waivers weren't just for show. For many, this would be the last time they saw true daylight. They were about to descent into hell. Anko was right. They were going to be getting a real taste of being a ninja.

-

Mizune led her squad through the forest with unerring focus and concentration. Her every spare bit of conscious thought intent on keeping them safe. The rain forests in her homeland were easier to navigate in stealth. The wet atmosphere kept the ground moist and there were very few dry leaves or branches littering the ground. Combined with the extremely thick amounts of foliage, it was at times more challenging to be seen than to stay hidden. Not so in Fire Country.

The ground was hard. Dead leaves were everywhere. A single misplaced step and anything within fifty meters would know your location. Mizune's teammates were much weaker than her. They all knew it. She was the leader, the planner, the fighter. They were support. As a special reconnaissance squad, more experimental than practical, the clan heiress was both the brains and the brawn. At least until her teammates matured some and grew stronger. They were decent ninja, but not anywhere near her caliber. It was their ill fortune which had attached them to the girl. Their ill fortune that had them constantly facing dangers that they weren't prepared for, and every time Mizune had been the one to bail them out. Upon their successful return to Mizu no Kuni, she would return to her family's home with her team and they would be formally recognized as official Chuunin of the Land of Water.

There was a loud snap. Mizune and her companions paused instantly, frozen stiff. She turned around, a look of shock on her face. She glanced into the terrified eyes of Yusuke who met her gaze. All three looked down at the boy's feet. There twig was severed in pieces beneath his foot. He whispered, "Sorry..." They stood still for a few more seconds, and then began to move.

Kazuya shrieked, a high pitched, grating noise. It cut off prematurely. There was a sickly snap and something wet sprayed over Mizune and Yusuke. They turned back around, meeting the sight of their friend snapped in half. They sprinted into the trees.

Mizune didn't cry. She wouldn't cry. What was it her father told her before she left her family's mansion? Verbatim, "I don't raise failures, Mizune. You will go with the grace of our family, and return to us a Chuunin. Protect your teammates. Do not fail. This is the most important thing, my precious daughter. You have not disappointed me, once, in your life. Do not start now. Go."

Mizune glanced to Yusuke who sat, back against the broad expanse of the ancient tree, his cheeks red, eyes flooding with tears. She felt her own eyes trickle, despite her fervent attempts to stymie to flow of tears. She glanced down at the body of one of her best friends. He was only fourteen, a year older than she and Yusuke.

They were too young for this. Mizune wept silently, begging Yusuke to keep quiet as well. This wasn't supposed to happen. They had such a bright future ahead. They would be legends. The entire country was supposed to watch their rise to greatness. She heard a horrid ripping sound, and the putrid smell of half digested food and gas reached her nose. She refused to look down, but knew something was _eating_ her friend. Her lover. Across from her, in the other tree, she heard a gagging sound, and splash.

Mizune's eyes blasted open wide, watching as this time an arm of sand grabbed Yusuke by the neck, snapping his head backwards into the tree. His skull burst open in a grotesque spray of gore. The sand grew, engorging itself on the dead body. There were footsteps, now. Careless. Maybe three... What kind of monsters were these people?

Mizune was dead. She couldn't return to her family a failure. Status as a missing nin, especially as weak as she was in the grand scale of things, would only warrant a few days of life. 'Hungry...' She looked up and saw into the most devilish orbs of green she'd every seen. The pale, red haired boy didn't flinch as his sand crept out of his gourd sheathe and ended any thoughts of escape, or any thoughts whatsoever, of the young kunoichi. There was a distinct crack, her skull collapsing under the immense pressure. Several lesser cracks and a multitude of crunches later, and the sand was compacted to the size of an apple.

The sand, stained crimson, returned to its wielder, who dropped to the ground which was saturated in blood. Gaara reached out with palm upturned. A blood stained scroll fell into his hand. He didn't bother to look at it. He coughed lightly, "They're dead. See, I didn't even make you watch."

From the bushes on the sides came his elder sister Temari and elder brother Kankuro. Both looked at the scene with looks designed to feign nonchalance. They looked like they were going to vomit. Gaara glared at them, "Pathetic..."

Temari and Kankuro followed their baby brother further into the forest without looking back.

The branch which the dead girl once sat now dribbled crimson into the red puddle below.

-

Team Seven's progress was not very bad. Actually, they were doing very well. Via an impromptu tag team Sasuke and Naruto had managed to incapacitate the scout of one of the teams from Earth Country. With his magical vines Kurama had taken care of the rest of the group, walking up to their paralyzed forms and ripping the scroll out of its holster at the hip of one of them.

Kurama turned and walked back to his team, "The vines will die in a few hours. Your teammate is hung in a tree. Hope you get there before he falls or you might be more interested in leaving as you came than in getting another scroll. See you."

Team Seven leapt into the trees and sped towards the tower at the center. The ninja of Earth country cursed, valiantly struggling against the impossibly strong vines which were practically wrapped around every square inch of their bodies. After a few minutes they just gave up though.

Sakura glanced back, watching the display from her vantage point high in the trees. Kurama, Naruto, and Sasuke both flickered up into existence near her. She nodded towards the ninja below, "Pretty neat trick, Kurama."

The red haired shinobi smiled slightly at the compliment before getting serious, "Spot anything interesting nearby? We really need to be careful. There's something strange about two of our fellow competitors."

Sasuke nodded in agreement. Naruto spat, "That fucked up Sand-nin and that faggot ass Grass-nin. Ugh!"

Sakura giggled quietly, "I didn't think the ninja from Grass was all that weird... Of course, he also didn't molest me."

Naruto feigned an indignant frown, secretly enjoying the familiar way they interacted after being separated for so long, "Yeah, whatever."

Sasuke broke into the conversation before it could go on any longer, "Look, we've got the scrolls. What we need to do is avoid confrontation and make it to the tower ASAP."

"Sasuke is correct, that would seem like the proper course of action," supported Kurama. He grinned a toothy grin, "Of course, there isn't any thrill like the rush you get from preying on lesser ninja." The members of Team Seven regarded him curiously. Naruto felt a strange surge of agreement. Sasuke felt suddenly intimidated. Sakura looked back and forth between Naruto and Kurama, not liking the sudden malignant tint in their eyes.

She broke off in the direction of the tower, "Time's a-wasting, you guys!"

Not left with any real other recourse of action, the group followed her.

-

Naruto spun out of control, flying into a tree with devastating force. Kurama winced at the sound of contact. He stopped mid air and glided to a lower branch, bracing for attack. To the left of him Sasuke was ripped out of the tree by a long, pale pink... something. Kurama motioned for Naruto with his eyes, the pink haired member of the team shooting off towards the downed boy.

Kurama jumped off the branch, in search of Sasuke and their unknown, unseen captor. He saw the ebony haired shinobi stabbing the pink thing wrapped around his neck with a kunai. They were a ways off in the distance, but Kurama could see he was inflicting no serious damage. There was a bright blue spark, and the thing let go, withdrawing hastily. Kurama zipped behind Sasuke, looking in the opposite direction as the Uchiha boy. "What the hell is it, Sasuke?"

The Uchiha cursed, "I'm not sure... but it's slimy. Some sort of strange appendage."

There was a hissing laugh that came from all directions at once. And then a grunt, followed by a loud roar. Naruto had found their attacker.

Kurama and Sasuke sped towards where they knew they'd heard Naruto's shout, and flew through a thick wall of brush to be met with the blond slamming into them. Naruto coughed, "Fucker's strong..."

"Maybe the Uzumaki boy isn't as worthless as I thought. I hit him with the intent to kill. It's not very often that doesn't actually kill someone."

The Grass-nin came from the thicket Naruto had just came from. Kurama shoved Naruto off of him and stood beside Sasuke who had already gotten to his feet. Naruto shortly joined them. Finally, Sakura sprinted towards them from off to the side.

Kurama didn't let his battle fever engulf him. Instead he let it fuel him, but he kept a tight watch on his raging blood lust. Anko had tempered his desire to simply let his power drive his actions. When he'd gone with Kakashi on the mission to the Wave he'd never had to tap into his youki very deeply. Now, on the other hand, he had to.

Kurama decided on a plan of action. They would assault the ninja in front of them as a group, but if it came to it, he would make the sacrifice. After all, he had the best chance of surviving. Worst come to worst, throw away the guise which he'd adopted. Become a demon again. Yeah, blown cover, but he'd be alive, and this thing wouldn't be.

Naruto lead the attack, his body nearly overflowing with chakra. He pulled his hand back and vanished. The Grass-nin's own arm came around to his back in a maneuver which left him stationary, but had to have dislocated his shoulder. He met Naruto's blast of chakra with his own, a purple, rancid looking blast of energy so concentrated and potent that it not only disrupted Naruto's but cut through it and sent the blond's arm back, the momentum carrying him with it.

The shinobi from the Grass looked a little surprised, "You're quite the resilient little shit morsel, huh?"

Sasuke and Sakura both ran at him from the sides, Kurama leaping into the air and channeling some of his chakra into his hands in a funnel. All three ran through seals. Sasuke's hands came together in front of his mouth in a Tiger seal, Sakura's came together in a clap at her chest. A brilliant explosion rocked the forest.

Sakura's seal had sealed the Grass shinobi in place. Sasuke's giant burst of flame had engulfed the man in crimson fire. Kurama's own seal had served to virtually throw a truck load of gasoline over a campfire. Given the 'campfire' in question was hot enough to melt steel, it was a good thing Sakura had managed to create a shield around her companions in time.

Kurama flipped backwards and landed on his feet. Naruto appeared out of the bushes and sauntered up to the gathered ninja. Sakura and Sasuke both watched anxiously. Without any word of explanation, Naruto suddenly flared up a brilliant crimson and jumped into the great crater at their feet which was full of smoke. There were tremendous sounds from inside. A devastating roar from one of the combatants further embellished the drama of not being able to see inside the swirling smoke.

Naruto flew back out of the smoking, ash filled crater in the middle of a sudden wasteland environment. His crimson aura had faded. He struck the ground once with the back of his neck. He flipped several times and landed face up. Blood trickled out of his nose, eyes, and ears. He coughed and blood spurted into the air. Sakura ran over and flipped him onto his side. She brought her hands together to attempt and channel healing chakra into his unconscious form, but a sudden, invisible blow to the head sent her reeling into the what was left of the shrubbery behind them.

The Grass nin floated out of the hole. He was different. His face was _cracked_, as if some invisible mask had been in place of his own face. One dangerously pale hand lifted and grasped the remnants of the fleshy mask and tore it from his own. A human snake glared at them from behind slitted, demonic pupils. His face matched the hue of his skin, inhumanly pale with an extremely narrow demeanor. His teeth appeared as miniature fangs in the grim smile he displayed to the team of Genin. Everything about the man, everything, screamed for them to run as far away as possible.

Kurama chuckled slightly, trying to shake the fearful feelings impressing upon him. The sound most likely didn't reach his teammates, as they were viciously trying not to shit themselves. The amounts of killing intent being emitted by the serpent were nearly unbearable in their ferocity. The seemed to erode away their caution, daring them to run, but nobody moved.

"Well, it appears I've had to prematurely unfurl my little guise. And unfortunately, you little shits," the mysterious ninja all but snarled out, "Your little demon friend won't just go the fuck away, so I'm going to prolong my mission in favor of having a little fun with you all to counterbalance the growing frustration I feel towards this irritating little punk."

At the mention of 'demon friend' Kurama was ready to sprint forwards and engage him, but at the last second he realized who he was actually referring to. Kurama glanced in the direction of Naruto, but found he was simply laying there, face a mess. He glanced at Sakura, who caught his look. He motioned to the blond, and though he sensed annoyance, Sakura didn't hesitate in the gentle command. As soon as Sasuke and Kurama launched themselves after the devilish man, the pink haired girl sprinted over to the unconscious blond, picked him up, and ran as far towards the tower as she could, throwing traps behind her until the pouch of exploding tags at her side was empty. She threw the pouch out as well in her haste.

-

Kurama ducked under the ferocious hook, countering by grabbing hold by the elbow and spinning himself upside down. A chakra enforced kick caught the snake man in his jaw. It didn't work as effectively as he thought, the shinobi simply catching the foot under his jaw with enough force that Kurama felt the bones shift in the appendage. He moaned slightly and spun around, just in time to miss several lightning quick blows from Sasuke who seemed to apparate under him. Their pale adversary let his foot go, his hooked hand shot out and sent Kurama flying while his other caught each and every punch in the flurry. His demonic eyes didn't even focus on the dark haired genin assaulting him.

Kurama and Sasuke retreated back, giving them some space from the incredibly powerful ninja. They shouldn't have engaged him. Kurama was worried. He could possibly beat the man. Possibly. To do so would ruin his cover, and if he was healthy enough after the battle, he would be forced to track down and kill Sakura and Sasuke, as well as have to drag Naruto's writhing body into the Makai... whenever he was able to summon up a gate.

There were too many uncertain variables which threw all hopes of any accurate calculations concerning his success to the wind. It wasn't even pertinent to think about it. Kurama suddenly had a thought, and abandoned the use of his chakra. He suppressed it as much as possible and motioned for Sasuke to lead the attack. Both eyes spinning in the hypnotic state of the Sharingan, Kurama drifted behind the Uchiha as a shadow.

Just as Kurama expected, the deadly ninja wasn't focusing on the battle. His instincts were honed so finely he reacted without any thought to the battle, and not only was he successfully defending himself, he was actually beating the two without any real attempt to do so. With his body not sensing Kurama's chakra, the elite shinobi only reacted to the multitude of attacks sent by Sasuke. Kurama went to the shinobi's back and held open his hand. With a flicker of demonic youki, Kurama sent a funnel shaped blast of acidic energy deep into his back.

The response was a scream that filled the entire forest in its horrific pain. The last thing Kurama saw, which definitely tore the defiant grin from his face, was the ninja's evil eyes suddenly flare with purple chakra. The burst of power given off sent the crimson haired shinobi into the forest, hundreds of yards away.

The scream also drew other parties in and around the forest. A certain group of Genin sensed their time had come. A certain high ranking kunoichi reacted to the malice present in the shout. Her response was not quite beneficial to the demonic shinobi's plans.

-

Sakura heard the scream, and recognized it as not belonging to either of her teammates still fighting that monster. But just as she registered the fact, the agony contained turned to the harshest rage she had ever felt. The very cave she now took shelter in quaked and groaned in protest. There was a sudden wave of violent chakra which threatened to collapse her centuries old shelter, but the construct held. There was silence.

"Sakura... where the fuck is that freak...?"

The kunoichi being addressed looked into the battered face of one Uzumaki Naruto. One eye was crinkled open in a lackadaisical, unfocused gaze of an eerie crimson. She couldn't tell if the red was from some bleeding in the capillaries which ran into and around his eye, or something left over from the mysterious burst of power he'd been given. The other eye opened through the film of dried blood and she was shocked to see a brilliant cerulean gazing up at her.

-

Sasuke looked around him. The world was a dreary white, not uncommon to a similar universe he not so long ago found himself encased in. His heart rate quadrupled.

"Don't fear it, young Uchiha. This is no creation of the Sharingan."

The hissing voice of his antagonist came from everywhere at once. Frantically looking around, Sasuke couldn't help but notice nothing there. The world shifted to ebony so suddenly he felt his stomach shake.

There was the man, suddenly standing in front of him, his pale skin a beacon in the deathly black environment. He smiled, "I'm going to bless you with a gift, young Uchiha. To honor you. In return, I may one day beseech a favor, of sorts."

Sasuke felt like his head had been ripped off half way from the neck. He screamed as the burning sensation pierced into his skin, down into his spine, and spread throughout. The world suddenly got somehow darker.

-

Anko sped through the trees at a rate even some Jounin would have balked at. She had passed maybe two miles into the Forest when suddenly there was a malevolent presence ahead of her. She stopped, her momentum carrying her several more feet down the branch the traveled. Her eyes met the sickening yellow eyes of her tormentor. Her breath hitched and her heart skipped a beat. Rage filled her to the breaking point, and with a shriek that broke in her throat she ran at him.

"OROCHIMARU!"

-

Sakura carefully led the dizzy form of Naruto through the wilderness, back towards the chaotic battlegrounds. As they stepped into the oddly perfect circle of scorched ground, Sakura saw there was no sign of Kurama. She didn't even sense him. That sent a shiver of fear down her spine. No matter how much she balked at how sadistic his sense of humor seemed to be, or how much of a smart ass he sometimes came across as, he was powerful. Kakashi knew it, Sasuke knew it, Naruto knew it. Without the comforting thought that his presence was nearby and looking over her, she suddenly realized how weak she still felt she was.

Naruto shook his hand out of her steel grasp, "Chill out with the handshake." Naruto's world view was blurry. Half of his vision seemed eerily sharp, so much so that everything seemed to be in some form of slow motion. The other side of his vision was so dull in contrast from the concussion he now suffered that it was only further throwing his balance off. He shakily stepped forward, and fell to the left. He couldn't catch himself in time his compensating for the slow motion vision making his body run at a similar speed without his wanting of it.

Naruto lay still for a few moments, attempting to will his world to normal. Still the view of a perfect, blue sky which hung over great flourishing trees around the seclusion of this barren circle greeted him in a warped and hazy manner. "I think I need to lie here for a few minutes, Sakura. See if you can find Sasuke or Kurama... I don't... sense them..."

Sakura realized he had fallen asleep as he lay there. She knew he wasn't supposed to sleep after having such a great injury to the brain, but after already falling unconscious involuntarily after the blow to the head, it wouldn't do to jar him into consciousness any more. She glanced around and made sure there were no immediate reasons to be overly concerned for leaving him there for a second, then set about the large circle of charred dirt for any signs of her missing teammates.

Within a minute or two she'd found Sasuke's limp form lying in the dirt, a strange, glowing sigil seemingly etched into his neck. She touched it, cautiously. There was a shock, and she snatched her hand back. She couldn't quite place what the marks reminded her of, but she sensed a great evil burrowing inside her beloved companion. Channeling medicinal oriented chakra, she let her hands hove over the strange puncture marks, and began to focus the healing energy into the wounds. The purple and black energies given off by the marks repelled her chakra, though. No matter how greatly she attempted to force the chakra into his body, there was no getting pass the waves of power which sought to repulse her attempts to heal him.

With a curse, Sakura let her hands drop. She punched the ground in frustration. "So, what is it we have here..."

The kunoichi turned to face the voice that posed the question. The cockiest looking smirk she'd ever seen nearly flattened her with its bravado. She winced at the overflowing amount of over imposing masculinity given off by this shinobi. "I suppose there's no rules against having a little fun before getting to business," said the grossly overconfident-Sakura glanced at his headband-Sound ninja.

He brought his hands forward and aimed his strange steel gauntlets at the cowering kunoichi. He winked, "Have fun in hell!" The odd gauntlets let out a piercing whine, and the the next thing Sakura knew there was a wave of something harder than brick smashing into her face. She was thrown back into the air, but managed to maneuver so that she could grab into the hard packed dirt and stop her momentum. As soon as she touched the ground, her feet were sending her back at the shinobi who was looking at her with a shocked expression. She smirked and spun, bringing the full force of her body into the kick that struck the boy in his neck. His head bent around the limb and met his shoulder with enough force to sound out a loud slap. A second kick from her opposite leg struck him in the other side of his body, in his shoulder. He flipped over the leg still extended to his neck.

There was a second blast of energy from somewhere behind her, and it was much more focused. Though it didn't send her flying off into the trees, the pain was greater, and struck the middle of her lower back with such great ferocity that she felt all control of her legs vanish, and she couldn't catch herself. She fell with a thud and couldn't even turn over to face her new competitor. Another Sound Genin, his face covered in some ragged gauze material looked at her with a look she'd never seen a combatant give her before. She liked that look. He had respect for her.

"Zaku, honestly..." said the masked shinobi in a disappointed sigh.

The accosted companion stood up shakily, the right side of his face leaking blood from his ear, eye, nose, and the right corner of his mouth. His head seemed cocked to the side at an angle slightly less than normal. He coughed, then spit out a mouthful of bloody teeth. With a curse he turned around and kicked Sakura in the face. She cried at the contact, but then stayed silent. Growling at her silence, Zaku snapped another, sturdier, kick to her face. Still she stayed quiet.

After several more subsequent kicks to her battered face, the masked ninja set his hand on Zaku's shoulder, his single gauntlet resting heavily. "That's enough. You're not getting back any honor in degrading her. Besides, we're not here for her. Look, he's over... where did he go?" the calm, placating tone was slightly alarmed towards the end.

Sasuke burst in between them, nearly flying. Where his foot curved into his leg, he caught both of their skulls in between, and as he went between them spun wildly. The two bodies were chunked through the air in a circular motion, and Zaku's already half broken neck sounded on the verge of snapping, until the spinning movement threw them to the ground, hard. The masked ninja's arms broke his fall and he sprung back onto his feet, crouched low. As Zaku attempted to push himself up, Sasuke's brilliantly glowing form stomped his face into the ground. There was a sickening squish, a muffled scream. His jaw had broken and had crumpled into his face, the remaining teeth destroying flesh. Sasuke kicked him in the side of the head, and the sudden twisting motion finally snapped his neck, silencing his plaintiff cries.

A horrified, feminine shriek came from the woods, and the masked shinobi withdrew something from his pocket, a scroll. Sasuke's Sharingan eyes followed his movements, looking even more twisted, set back in his eerily tattooed face. Cautiously, and also in a rushed manner, the ninja set it before the enraged Konoha shinobi, "Forgive us. In peace, I offer you our scroll."

The female voice which had screamed cried aloud once more, "Dosu! Get away!"

Dosu reacted, and sprinted away as fast as he could manage. He and his hidden teammate dashed towards where they were to meet after encountering Cell 7 to meet their taskmaster. Never before had Dosu ran this hard.

Sasuke made a motion to follow them and ignore the scroll which the didn't even need, Sharingan active and twirling sadistically. Sakura grabbed his foot, "Please, don't go..."

The ebony haired Uchiha glanced at her, and shrugged off her grasp. Sakura's hand stayed risen for a few seconds, then limply dropped as she fell unconscious. He moved to walk forward, and Naruto stepped to move in front of him. "Sasuke, they're scared of you. You just killed one of them, isn't that enough?" Naruto questioned, his eyes finally stabilized on the pulsating form of Sasuke, whose aura was a blistering, cascading flurry of sickening purple chakra that danced around him in quasi-electrical sparks.

Sasuke grunted, "No. They haven't suffered enough. I need to see them die. I have to kill them. Move."

Naruto glared at him, his left eye a molten red. With a similar grunting sound he replied, "I'm not going to let you give in to whatever that seal is commanding you to do. You don't need that, Sasuke. Nobody needs that." Naruto stepped forward, his chakra blazing in a similar fashion, only a slightly visible crimson.

Sasuke hesitated, and his eyes closed. "I'm stronger than this. I don't need that." The purple chakra faded steadily. Sasuke opened his eyes, and they were once more normal. He sighed heavily and fell to his knees, then collapsed face first into the dirt. The odd black symbols driven into his skin also faded.

Naruto's rush of chakra ceased to flow. He calmly approached the passed out figures of Sakura and Sasuke. His multicolored eyes searched for any sign of Kurama. Seeing none he grabbed Sasuke by the waist, glancing at the bite marks on his neck as he lifted him onto one shoulder. He did the same with Sakura. For a few moments he stood still, and then rushed on, trusting Kurama to follow. He couldn't afford to wait and leave them here. Kurama was strong enough to survive. Naruto trusted him. Perhaps too much.

He set a hectic pace as he flew through the forest, growing closer and closer to the tower with each step.

-

Anko clutched her bleeding shoulder tightly, limping through the hallways of the medical pavilion within the central tower. A group of ninja had been dispatched to deal with the threat, but she couldn't help but feel it was her fault that she hadn't caught Orochimaru as he passed into the forest. After all, if she couldn't sense him, who could?

The sensation left to her by the failure to connect with her suicide attempt only further resounded a guilty consensus with her conscience. 'Worthless.' she spat mentally. 'Fucking worthless whore!' She suddenly slammed her profusely bleeding shoulder into the stone wall, smiling through the immense pain that jolted through her system as the shoulder joint cracked from the contact. Already ruptured, the cushioning material in her joints didn't soften the blow, and the ragged bone on bone contact further wracked her body with painful shocks. Smiling, she reared back and did it again, her teeth biting into her lips so strongly that she bit clear through. Without any verbal stating of her pain, she stepped backwards and looked at the blood spattered wall.

She felt relieved, and the guilt was erased. The fact that she'd returned to a habit given to her by the traitor Orochimaru didn't even pass through her mind. After all, it made her feel good. What was so bad about that?

Anko turned around the corner and sat down in the examination chair within the operating room. She spat the bulk of her bottom lip out of her mouth, pleased at the sickened look she received from the veteran surgeon as he saw her self inflicted wound hanging by a thread of flesh. Anko grinned at him through the cascading blood which caked the bottom half of her face.

-

Kurama decimated the tree by bashing it with his fist. The tree crumpled around his balled up hand, splintering and bursting into dust from the devastating blow. Never had Kurama felt such great frustration. Just when he thought his impeccable on the fly strategic genius had given him the one up on his opponent, sheer power outweighed him. As Kurama marched through the forest towards the tower he left behind a trail of ruined forest behind him.

The genius that gifted him with such brilliance also blessed him with the realization that his understanding of this world was still narrow, and as such, not everything was going to go the way he wished it to. But still, to have been overpowered so greatly was a harsh blow to his pride. Anko was one thing, he had learned from that and knew he had gone into the fight overconfident. But he fought against that snake bastard as cautious as possible. The fact that sometimes not everything can be anticipated is a hard one to accept.

Another tree fell before his fury. He roared and thought about finding the damned shinobi that so easily had destroyed his squad. The scent of fear caught his notice, suddenly. Arch his head up into the trees above him he peered into the shaking eyes of one Kin Tsuchi, and next to her the comprehending eyes of her Sound companion, Dosu Kinuta. Their names Kurama didn't actually know. Nor did he know he'd stumbled upon the chosen meeting place given to the two ninja hanging in the limbs overhead by the current focus of his malice. Not knowing that by waiting a little longer that Orochimaru would eventually show up, Kurama grinned psychotically up at the duo.

Dosu glanced at Kin, the motion signaling for her to flee. Just as she went to leap out of the tree and run, a vine shot out of the tree and wrapped around her throat. With a frantic look, she gazed into Dosu's visible eye, gazing into the shocked eye of the boy who was supposed to keep her safe. She opened her mouth to cry out, but only gurgled. Blood pooled in the open orifice, leaking out the sides of her mouth, and the vine clenched down, a magnificent crunch signaling the crushing of her throat. Her lifeless form was thrown over, and the vine shrunk back into the tree's brush where it had come.

Dosu looked down at the crimson haired shinobi, and shook his head in disbelief. How fucking unlikely was it, to run into two of Konoha's most insane shinobi one after the next. He'd thought he'd been lucky considering he'd survived living around Orochimaru for the last few years. But, my God, this was unreal. A surge of anger fueled his reaction, cockily challenging the red haired shinobi, "I'll fight you... Konoha scum."

Kurama laughed darkly. Like he had a choice.

-

Kurama tossed Dosu's lifeless corpse away, the satisfaction of having choked the life out of his broken, battered body finally dousing the raging inferno desiring some form of retribution for his self imagined shame.

Calm once more, Kurama looked into the sky and judged that he'd only been gone from his team for around twenty or thirty minutes from the passing of clouds and position of the relatively unmoved sun. He set off for the tower, whistling cheerily. He missed Orochimaru by minutes.

-

Naruto dropped the bodies of Sasuke and Sakura off in the middle of the lobby, ignoring the questioning glances given off by the only other team inside. Gaara didn't bother to grace them with a look, but his teammates took in the battered forms warily, wondering if the unholy screams given off earlier had been from whatever encounter had left them in such a state. Naruto shouted, "I NEED A MEDIC!"

As the sterling white figures rushed to assist the broken bodies, Naruto glanced at the two shinobi and lone kunoichi in the corner. Facing them from his right side, neither Kankuro or Temari could see the blistering ruby eye that smoldered under headband. During his flight to the tower, Naruto had realized that the incredibly acute vision given by his somehow altered eye was throwing off his balance, to keep his speed at highest capacity, he'd had to cover it until he further adapted to the change. He turned away from the unnaturally clean Sand ninja and helped himself to the bottled water on the lobby's reception counter. Naruto felt the pouch at his side where he'd stashed the two scrolls.

He sensed that there wasn't any real sense in waiting to open them when his team was back to consciousness. After all, what if they didn't wake up until the time limit was up? As such he took the foremost scroll and set his water aside. Without hesitation he tore open the scroll, eyes widening at the bright glow that appeared.

-

Kakashi stared down at his immobile student lying in the center of such a complex and unruly seal. Focusing intently on the burning mark embedded in the flesh of Sasuke's neck, the Copy Ninja began running through seal after seal, chakra coursing through his veins. With a grunt, he forced the gathered chakra to attack the glowing mark, sealing it beneath the skin until only a trace of it remained on the surface. Still the sickening chakra sought to fight against Kakashi's own power, but the Jounin didn't recant, and shortly the cursed seal was closed.

Kakashi wiped away some imaginary sweat on his brow and let out a relieved sigh, pleased that he didn't somehow decapitate his student. Gingerly picking the boy up he mussed up his already tousled hair and hung him over his shoulder. Whether or not he allowed himself to believe it, Kakashi wasn't all dead inside.

He carried Sasuke into the same room that Sakura now rest in, setting him into the bed where the attendants could redress him in private. As Kakashi went to exit the room he couldn't stop himself. He looked back and gave a small smile. He was proud of his team.

-

Iruka stared down in shock at the bruised form of his favorite anarchist. "You fought Orochimaru?!"

The whisper ended up being a sort of squelched scream/shriek thing that hurt Naruto's ears in its high pitched voicing. Across the room, though neither noticed, all of the Sand team twitched. Naruto nodded and asked, "Well, I get he's obviously supposed to be strong, but... just why is that so amazing?"

Iruka slapped his forehead, "You idiot, I can't believe that you don't know about him. That's one of the Legendary Sannin. He's one of the strongest shinobi to ever live. The fact that nobody died is nothing short of a miracle. Orochimaru left Konoha shortly after being denied the position of Yondaime. He was beaten out by Minato Namikaze. He apparently felt this was a personal slight against him and sought to demonize everything about Konohagakure. He was eventually found to be conducting some of the most sickening experiments on live patients that you could imagine..." Iruka stopped himself from revealing the state they'd found Anko in within Orochimaru's gore soaked laboratory.

The Chuunin bent down and gave Naruto a hug, clenching him tight, "I sometimes wonder if I should have never become a ninja. I can't handle the thought of losing such precious people. It's a cruel world, Naruto." Iruka stood and gave a playful punch to the blond's shoulder, "Don't let it beat you, kid." He went to walk away, and then stopped, "Oh, congratulations on passing the second portion of the Exams."

Naruto watched the retreating form of his teacher as Iruka wearily sauntered towards to elevator. A small surge of pride filled him to the brim. The doors to the tower opened. Drawn to the sound, Naruto turned to see the blood stained form of Kurama walk in with a cheery disposition belying his soiled body.

Kurama ignored the warily watching Sand ninja and made his way over to Naruto, "So I take it we passed?"

* * *

(A/N) So, this ends Chapter Five – Informal Gluttony. If you haven't caught on yet, the names correspond to songs that I'd gotten some form of inspiration from.

Ch. 1 – The Beginning of the End is taken from the post rock group God is An Astronaut song The End of the Beginning.

Ch. 2 – Constant Motion is taken from a song by Dream Theater.

Ch. 3 – The Rift Between is taken from the Thrash Metal band Sanctity.

Ch. 4 – The Lotus Eater is from a song by Opeth off their Watershed album.

Ch.5 – Informal Gluttony is from Between the Buried and Me's Colors album. Fucking love Colors.

If anyone follows these bands, the influence on the chapters may be sort of obvious, but if not, than usually either the mood of the song or the lyrics serve as great starting points when I feel I need to convey something.

Anyway, I'm actually cutting this kind of short. I was going to go on and finish out the exams, but at 32 pages, these notes actually beginning the thirty-third page, actually, I figured it was more than long enough to tide you guys over.

My internet is fucking up with the seriousness, so if there are any overt errors it will take me a little while until I'll be able to get back on and correct them, so please forgive the lack of a formal editing process with this chapter. I hope nothing is too fucked up.

So, hope you enjoyed it. R&R, please.

WORDS: 14886


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